Rob Ritter

Executive Director

Mr. Ritter comes to the NLMA after 12 years as national executive director with the Canada-Israel Committee (CIC) and 13 years as a senior manager with Health Canada.

Mr. Ritter earned his bachelor’s degree from Sir George Williams University in 1971 and completed his post-graduate studies in public health and for medical services from the University of Massachusetts in 1973 for Public Health Administration. From 1975 to 1989, Mr. Ritter served in various senior management positions with the Medical Services Branch of Health Canada, including Director of Community Health Systems Development and Assistant Regional Director for Ontario.

In 1989, he became the National Executive Director for the Canada-Israel Committee. He has been credited for transforming the CIC into a strategic proactive organization and effectively reversing the erosion in Canadian support for Israel during the difficult years of the Intifadah and the Gulf War.  Mr. Ritter championed the establishment of the Canada Israel Industrial Research Foundation, which has been highly successful and is today a prototype which Canada is intending to emulate with India and China.  He also led a campaign to establish a Canada-Israel Free Trade agreement, which was entered into in 1995 and has been very successful.

In 2001, Mr. Ritter became the Executive Director of the Newfoundland and Labrador Medical Association during the difficult time of negotiations with government. It led a 17-day job action campaign, which eventually led the provincial government to provide funding to address problems of retaining physicians. Mr. Ritter sees the NLMA as being the advocate and voice of physicians in the province, by providing leadership in the promotion of good health and the provision of quality health care to the people of Newfoundland and Labrador. 

He is currently a volunteer board member of B’nai Brith Canada as well as the Newfoundland and Labrador Centre for Health Information. He currently lives in St. John’s with his wife Shari. They have two sons, Matthew and Jonathan and two grandchildren, Coby and Ezra.