David Penn was born in 1969. He graduated from Melbourne University, Australia in 1994.From 1995 to 2000, he worked at the Royal Melbourne Hospital in Melbourne completing his surgical internship and surgical residency. In 2000 he entered the Victorian/ Tasmanian Orthopaedic Training Programme. In 2004 he successfully completed his training and was appointed a fellow of the RoyalAustralianCollege of Surgeons. (FRACS).
For the first 5 months of 2004, he worked as a trauma fellow at the RoyalMelbourneHospital trauma centre. Then he went to WrightingtonHospital in the United Kingdom to do an upper limb fellowship with Prof John Stanley and MrIanTrail. He then undertook the Exeter Professor Ling hip/knee arthroplasty fellowship. From Exeter he plans to go to Canada to spend 12 months with Prof William Stanish at Dalhousie University, Nova Scotia for a sports/arthroplasty fellowship.

His mains interests are skiing, surfing and following the battling Richmond football club. Long term interests in orthopaedics are sports/arthroplasty and in life aquiring a beach house overlooking a quality surf break.