Fire and Built Environment

Fire and the built environment

Virtual event

Scott Steedman CBE FREng FICE FInstRE - Director of Standards, British Standards Institution (BSI)

Scott Steedman is an Executive Director of BSI Group and Director of Standards, where he is responsible for BSI’s activity as a global standards organisation and its role as the National Standards Body. A civil engineer by background, Scott spent seven years as an academic at Cambridge University before moving to industry, holding senior roles in consulting companies working on building and infrastructure projects in the UK and around the world. He joined BSI in 2012.

Scott has been Vice President (policy) for the International Standards Organisation (ISO) since January 2017. He is a former Vice President of the European Committee for Standardization (CEN), the Royal Academy of Engineering and the Institution of Civil Engineers. He was appointed CBE in 2010 for services to engineering.

Ian Moore - CEO, Fire Industry Association

Ian is currently the Chief Executive Officer of the Fire Industry Association (FIA). The FIA, with nearly 900 member companies, is a not-for-profit trade association with the aim of promoting the professional status of the UK fire safety industry. As Europe’s largest trade association for the fire protection industry, the FIA’s main objective is to promote the professional standards of the fire industry through close liaison and lobbying with Government and key organisations in the industry. In addition, the FIA is an OFQUAL accredited Awarding Organisation examining to QCF Level 4 and its training department teaches thousands of students every year.

Previous to this Ian was the Managing Director for 5 years at Elmdene International; they being a leading manufacturer of electronic products for the Security, Access Control, CCTV and Fire Industries around the world. At the same time, the Chair of the BSIA Export Council, Board Director of the BSIA, Vice President of Potter Signals LLC, and advisor to a number of security and fire technology based companies.

A truly international working background being the lead project manager of the Africa Nations complex in Libya; Managing Director of Detector Technologies (D-Tec Video Smoke Detection), Country Manager for Cerberus in Taiwan and Siemens in UAE, Managing Director of Intelligent Security Ltd being awarded the Queen’s Award for Innovation; after serving in the Royal Navy for many years and as a Weapons Officer in the Sultan of Oman’s Forces.

Aman Sharma GIFireE CFPA-E Dip - Managing Director, Totus Digital

Aman is Managing Director of Totus Digital and has delivered executive level fire safety consultancy across industry including to; local authorities, contractors and housing associations. He specialises in providing expert technical advice in the digitisation of fire safety.

Aman is Chairman of BSI committee FSB 1/1/-/1, and leads on the programme delivery of BS 8644: 2021 - Digital Management of Fire Safety Information. He heads a panel consisting of officials from HM Government, regulatory bodies, local authorities, and some of the UK’s largest designers, contractors and asset managers.

He is the Deputy Chairman of the Building Regulations Advisory Committee (BRAC) supporting the delivery of the Building Safety Programme in addition to the maintenance and review of the Building Regulations 2010. He is Chairman of the BRAC Fire Safety (Part B) Technical Review Working Group leading on the review of the statutory guidance for fire safety. He also provides strategic oversight of the BRAC Golden Thread Working Group, providing policy advice and leading on the development of the digital golden thread.

Aman is a respected national voice for fire safety and digital change management, and is passionate about encouraging the adoption of digital solutions to create a safer built environment for all.

John Moore – BS 9251 Project leader

John has over 30 years experience in the automatic fire suppression industry and has been involved in a wide range of activities from complex high hazard industrial risks, heritage sites, student and residential accommodation, and domestic dwellings. For the last three years John has provided consultancy and training in the design of domestic and residential sprinkler systems.

John has taken a special interest in the protection of domestic and residential occupancies for over 20 years well before any British Standard had been published in this area. More recently he has represented Bsi at CEN for the development of EN 16925, is a member of FSH/18/2 Sprinkler system committee and is currently chair of the FSH/18/2/1 which is revising BS 9251 Fire sprinkler systems for domestic and residential occupancies.

Martin Weller - Associate Director, Technical Authority (Fire Engineering), Atkins Global

Martin Weller is a Fire Engineer with over 35 years’ experience in fire and nuclear safety, currently working as Technical Authority (Fire Engineering) at Atkins SNC-Lavalin – a multi-disciplinary design organisation. He specialises in major infrastructure projects (railways, airports, road tunnels, defence and nuclear facilities). He has recently been on secondment as a Senior Fire Engineer at Heathrow Airport and as Designated Competent Person (Tunnel and Fire Safety) at the DLR. Previous positions have included being Head of Fire Engineering at London Underground, management positions in two different UKAS-accredited fire testing laboratories and as a consultant designer of passive fire protection systems. He has nearly 30 years’ experience in the production of British and European standards and was one of the co-authors of BS 9999, BS 9992 and CIBSE Guide E. He is a Chartered Physicist, a Member of the Institute of Physics and is a Fellow of the Institution of Fire Engineers.

Steve Norman - Deputy Assistant Commissioner, London Fire Brigade

Steve has been with London Fire Brigade for 22 years progressing from fire-fighter through to Deputy Assistant Commissioner through a range of station and borough based roles as well as specialist roles in Fire Safety Regulation. He has led a number of projects and initiatives including the reduction of Unwanted Fire Signals, reducing the risk of fire to the vulnerable person and the promotion of assistive technology for vulnerable people with particular focus on the use of assistive technology and Telecare to reduce fire risk within the care sector. Over the last 15 years he has been a member of several British Standard committees related to fire alarm systems and fire alarm monitoring centres and recently chaired the working group which produced BS 8629 -Emergency Evacuation Alert Systems for High Rise Buildings.

Rachel Smalley - Regulatory Interventions - planning gateway lead, Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG)

Rachel joined MHCLG in February this year to work on the Building Safety Programme, specifically implementing Dame Judith Hackitt’s recommendations outlined in her Independent Review. Rachel is working on delivering gateway one through the existing planning system. Rachel has sat on British Standards committees for the last 14 years, prior to joining MHCLG was a member of the Government’s Building Regulations Advisory Committee for 5 years, and was the President of the Access Association for 7 years. Rachel was appointed to provide expert advice to the house of commons women and equalities select committee 2016-2018. Rachel is a design council Built Environment Expert, is a member of the National Register of Access Consultants, and has previously worked for local authority building control, within local planning authorities, and for the Mayor of London in his London Plan team as principal advisor- access and inclusion with policy responsibility for fire safety policy.

Ruzina Begum - Senior Policy Adviser, Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG)

Ruzina joined MHCLG in July 2018 as a senior policy lead to work on the Building Safety Programme. Ruzina is leading the development of policy and legislation on gateways two and three. Before joining MHCLG Ruzina worked in BEIS leading on EU exit policy, legislation and negotiations on mergers and takeovers, as well as working on wider EU competition policy. Ruzina has previously worked for local authority regeneration teams specialising in high street redevelopment and income generation schemes via commercial property development.

Robert Taylor MIFireE - Area Manager, Strategic Leadership Team, Derbyshire Fire & Rescue Services

Robert has enjoyed a career spanning almost 20 years in the Fire Sector. Currently he is working as a member of Derbyshire Fire & Rescue Services Strategic Leadership Team and has been heavily involved in the successful resolution of two of the most high profile major incidents across the UK in recent years. These were the Whaley Bridge Dam incident (August 2019) and the Saddleworth Moor fire (June/July 2018). During the Whaley Bridge incident he was the Fire lead within the Strategic Coordinating Group (SCG) and later the Incident Commander. This was one of the largest multi-agency life risk Incidents that any Fire & Rescue Service has been involved with.

Sandra Tomlinson - HM Inspector, Health and Safety Executive (HSE)

Sandra has been an Inspector for the Health and Safety Executive for 19 years, inspecting and investigating health and safety matters in many different industries including manufacturing, health, local authorities and construction. As well as being an inspector Sandra has also provided policy support for the UK implementation of the Basic Safety Standards Directive for ionising radiation and lately as the construction safety lead for fire in construction. In this role, Sandra works collaboratively with construction industry groups to identify and address fire risks during construction, refurbishment and demolition works and supports inspectors where fire issues are identified. She is managing the delivery of inspections to high rise residential buildings where cladding is being removed and replaced to ensure duty holders are managing fire risks during the works to keep both workers and residents in the buildings safe. Sandra is also part of the HSE team responsible for the delivery of the new Building Safety Regulator.

Niall Rowan - CEO, Association of Specialist Fire Protection (ASFP)

Niall took on the role of Chief Executive Officer at the ASFP at the start of 2017, having been the Association’s Technical Officer since 2010.

As CEO he provides leadership and direction to the ASFP’s aims to protect life, property and the environment through educating all those involved in the design, manufacture, installation and maintenance of ‘built in’ fire protection. Niall serves on numerous industry, government, trade association and other stakeholder bodies, he presents at seminars/webinars on behalf of the ASFP and is passionate about raising standards across the industry.

Judith Schulz - Director, Arup

Judith Schulz is Director of Arup and a Chartered Fire Engineer with the Institute of Fire Engineers and has been a Member of BRAC Building Regulation Advisory Committee since August 2019. With over 10 years experiences of experience in the UK and internationally, Judith has provided specialist expertise and leads Arup’s fire aviation business in the UK and Arup Fire’s BIM fire safety integration and is leading the fire engineering input for Arup in two Heathrow Q6 frameworks as well as the Heathrow Expansion Programme works stream for the new Terminal Buildings. She leads the 20+ fire engineering and accessible environments team in London. Judith has degrees from NZ (fire engineering from Canterbury University), Germany (civil engineering from Technical University of Karlsruhe) and England (Interdisciplinary design in the built environment from Cambridge) and worked on many high profile and award-winning projects, in the UK and internationally, including for example the London 2012 Olympic Main Stadium, The Shard, as well as Heathrow and Navi Mumbai Airports. She provides strategic fire safety advice to several clients with large building portfolios in the UK, building on her experience at all stages of a project cycle. She has a keen interest in digital transformation and what it means for fire safety. The motivation behind her thorough and proactive style stems from her goal that fire safety is properly considered, and respected, by all - which needs everyone involved at design, construction and operational stage of buildings to take part.

Daniel O’Dowd - BIM Manager, Fire Engineering, Arup

Daniel is an experienced BIM Manager whose previous role as an Architectural Professional in both the UK and Australia has given him a robust breadth of knowledge of both the construction industry and its digital evolution.

With key-role experience in several sectors including Healthcare, Commercial and Retail , he has experience leading a variety of disciplines through BIM and building coordination. Having worked closely with project teams to create BIM Execution Plans and working methodologies, he has a strong interest in emerging technologies’ and software development to streamline protocol and workflow.

Joining Arup in 2019, he will use his knowledge and experience to help transform the way Fire Engineering interacts with Building Information Modelling.

Fire and the built environment

Fire and the built environment

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