The FIA team
FIA Staff
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CEO
Ian joined the FIA in September 2015 as the new CEO. Previously to this Ian was the Managing Director of several companies operating in the fire and security industry the most recent being Elmdene International and as a Vice President of Potter Signal. Recently Chairman of the BSIA Export Council and BSIA Operating Board, member of several fire and security committees, he has a wealth of experience to bring. Having lived in Oman, Taiwan and UAE, Ian also brings strong International experience to support any export activities of the FIA and its members.
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General Manager
Adam joined the FIA in October 2019, working on a variety of key areas with a variety of stakeholders, most notably the UKCA Mark, the IoT Forum, and the FIM Expo. Since September 2022, Adam has been the General Manager, after having worked as the Operation Manager, he now focuses on improving how the FIA works, managing, supporting, and growing the team. In addition to building and maintaining relationships, he is eager to provide benefits to FIA members, the wider industry, and the association as a whole.
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Training Manager
Michael joined the FIA in September 2008 as Sales Manager moving onto Training Manager in 2017. During his time as Sales Manager the FIA increased from 207 to 715 members. Michael took over as Training manager in June 2017 following the launch of the FD&A Qualifications and oversaw the changes involved in that transition. The number of days the FIA train yearly has increased in this time from 247 days to 680 days of training planned in 2023. The primary role of training manager is to deal with everything relating to training within the FIA from helping create new courses, setting the training diary and basically if it involves training it involves Michael.
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Commercial Manager
Chris joined the FIA in 2017 as the Membership Manager. During this time the main focus was to increase the membership to 1000 companies, a target that was achieved in Oct 2021, and to increase the value of membership for existing members. Chris moved into the broader role of Commercial Manager in Nov 2021, with the remit to increase the commercial viability of the association so that the FIA can give even more back to its members.
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Content Marketing Executive
Charlotte joined the FIA in January 2023 as a membership executive after graduating from St Marys University, Twickenham with an MSc in Sport and Exercise Physiology. She is looking forward to developing her knowledge and skills while also generating positive changes into the industry. Charlotte is hoping to build great relationships with new and existing members while ensuring excellent membership value.
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Events Manager
In July 2021, Ryan joined the FIA as Business Support, assisting in a variety of areas, including the Building Safety Portal and accounts. With growing responsibilities and gaining knowledge, he has now taken on the role of Events Manager. As he continues to develop his knowledge of the fire industry, he is excited to expand his skills. In July 2021, he graduated from Bournemouth University with a degree in Sociology and Criminology.
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Assistant Training Manager
Fiona joined the FIA in October 2022, as a new Training Co-ordinator. Her primary responsibility is to assist the Training team with all training related matters within the FIA. She is excited to assist the team and make a difference. She is also a full time mum to two young children and loves baking.
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Qualifications Coordinator
After 20 years’ experience, in the Finance side of the Recruitment sector, Sarah joined the FIA team in 2017, supporting the departments in Hampton. She then moved to the FIA AO as the Qualifications Coordinator where she set up and oversaw the running of the exams for our Qualifications courses. Following the sale of the AO, Sarah moved over to be the Qualifications Coordinator in the Training Department to administrate the running of qualification courses.
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Technical Manager
Will joined the Technical Team in December 2015. With a long history of working within the fire industry starting out installing fire detection & alarm systems. He has previously worked for the Fire and Security Association and represented them on numerous British Standards committees. Will was the scheme manager for the BAFE SP203 & BAFE SP205 certification schemes operated by the ECA certification company. Prior to joining us he worked for 2 years at the Building Research Establishment (BRE) as Product Development Manager for the Electronic Security Team.
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Technical Manager
Robert joined the FIA team in 2002 as Assistant Technical Manager, taking over as Technical Manager in 2005. Prior to joining, Robert worked for BSI and was responsible for National, European and International Fire Committees for fire extinguishing (FSH/18, CEN /TC191), fire detection and alarms (FSH/12, CEN /TC72), Fire Brigade Equipment (FSH/17, CEN /TC192) Portable Fire Extinguishers (FSH/2) and was one of the founding members of CEN/CLC/TC 4.
Robert remains the current Chair of FSH/18 Fixed Fire Fighting Systems and CEN /TC191 Fixed Fire Fighting Systems, FSH/16 Hazards to life from fire, FSS/0 Services in fire and security and convenor of ISO/TC21/SC8/WG5 which is responsible for ISO 14520-1 Gaseous extinguishing systems and of ISO/TC21/SC8/WG8 which is responsible for ISO 6813 CO2 extinguishing systems
He is also the Secretary for the Extinguishing and Services Councils in FIA.
In Euralarm he has been a member of Services Section since its inception and the Services Task group before that. In that role Robert was involved in developing the Euralarm position on the services standard EN 16763 and one of the team that drafted the Euralarm guidance on Remote Services which has since become EN 50710.
Robert has Chaired TC Horizontal compliance since 2013 and has been a Euralarm Board member for a similar period. -
Technical Manager
Neil joined the FIA team in 2019 as Technical Manager. Prior to joining, Neil worked for various third-party certified companies as a commissioning technician before starting his own company offering life safety system support and commissioning services to the fire industry.
Since starting at the FIA, Neil has represented the FIA on BSI committee FSH/12 (Fire detection and fire alarm systems) and has been an active member of the sub-committee FSH/12/5 (Alarm devices, voice alarm evacuation sub-systems and emergency voice communication) where he assisted in the revision of the latest revision of BS 5839-9 Emergency voice communication systems code of practice.
Neil joined the Euralarm Fire Section in 2019 to represent the FIA and its members, and subsequently joined the task group TG FS (Fire standards) and the newly reformed task group TG DLS (Domestic life safety). In December 2021 Neil was elected as Vice-Chair of the Fire Section and therefore became a Board member at Euralarm.
Neil is the Secretary for the Fire Detection and Alarm Council in FIA and is also jointly responsible for producing, reviewing and delivering training courses on industry topics and standards.
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Trainer
Mark joined the FIA in October 2017 as a Trainer for the new Fire Detection & Alarm Qualifications. Since leaving University he worked for the Automotive sector as Project Manager for Radio based components. Prior to joining us he spent the last decade working for Sterling Safety Systems, starting out as Technical Support Engineer and progressing onto Technical Team Leader, specialising in Radio FD&A products. He has also been heavily involved in ISO9001.
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Compliance Manager
Kevin has been working for over 44 years, including 15 years in military service before working in a range of civilian companies from IT training to the oil industry in a range of office management ISO 9001 auditing and administration management roles. He has been heavily involved with ISO 9001 and other ISO Standards since 2003 and is an IRCA certified lead auditor for ISO 9001:2015. Kevin joined the FIA as Compliance Manager in October 2015 and is looking forward to working with the FIA members and supporting their requirements to achieve 3rd party certification as part of that role.
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Trainer
Steve joined the FIA in January 2019 and has worked within the fire & security industry for twenty-three years working both out on site as an installation and commissioning technician and also working in a design and estimating role. During this time, he has worked within a number of sectors, ranging from Security & CCTV, Fire Detection & Alarm systems and Fixed Gas Extinguishing. After spending some time working in Australia he returned to the UK in 2013
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Trainer
Tim joined the FIA in May 2023. He started his career in the fire industry in 1997 as a project engineer for a fire detection and alarm company mainly involved in the healthcare and custodial sectors. Since then, Tim has been involved in other areas such as fixed extinguishing, electronic security and fire risk assessment all whilst maintaining a keen interest in fire detection and alarm and had various roles which have included project management, internal auditing and training.
During his career he has been involved in the LPCB’s LP1014 certification scheme and BAFE SP203-1 certification schemes. This eventually led to him joining a third-party certification body operating the BAFE SP203-1, SP203-3 and SP203-5 certification schemes as well as security systems certification schemes.
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Technical Officer
Jamie joined the FIA team in October 2023 as Technical Officer & Trainer. Prior to joining, Jamie worked for various electrical contractors, being the project lead and installation supervisor for all fire detection & fire alarm system projects, before starting his own company offering life safety system support and design, installation, commissioning and maintenance services to the fire industry.
His company went on to become third-party certified under the BAFE SP203-1 scheme, utilising the FIA Route to Certification. Alongside his business, Jamie was a contract trainer for 12 months, assisting with the delivery of FIA training courses and qualifications, before joining the association as a full-time employee.
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Business Support Executive
Kirsty started invigilating on line exams for the FIA during the pandemic and then was delighted to join the team full time in March 2022 working with the Finance and Training Departments. Previous to this, before taking time off to raise her twins she was a Flight Attendant and has also worked in Sales and Sales Administration for Coca Cola and BMW Ltd.
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Facilities Assistant
Paul, who has been the FIA's Facilities Assistant in Northwich since November 2023, boasts over 20 years of retail experience, managing forecourts for Total and Shell. With a background in supervisory and training roles, especially with Total, he's eager to apply his skills and contribute to the Fire Industry Association's (FIA) mission. Excited about learning and growth, Paul brings a dynamic mix of experience to enhance facility operations.
