Professor Andrew Richard Hale, Chairman
MA, PhD, C.Psychol, ABPsS, MErgS, FIOSH
Andrew is available for:
- Health & Safety consultancy and mentoring on:
- Safety management and human factors
- Evaluation of safety improvements
- Learning organisations
- Role and training of safety and health professionals
- Health and safety training related to the above topics
Andrew Hale has been associated with HASTAM since its inception, either as director or adviser on European affairs. In May 2009 he took over as Chairman of the company from Richard Booth.He has worked in a variety of safety-related research and teaching jobs in the UK and the Netherlands, always in close collaboration with practice in industry, transport and public safety. He has experience at the sharp end as safety adviser to a UK car component firm and as head of safety training development for a North African petrochemical complex.
Andrew was a founder member of the Aston University Department of Safety & Hygiene, where he worked from 1972-1984. While at Aston he developed the first MSc course in Safety & Hygiene and was one of the initiators of NEBOSH. From 1984 to 2009 he was Professor of Safety Science at the Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands, developing and running a multidisciplinary group of researchers and lecturers, working in all branches of safety, from occupational and construction to transport, home and leisure. This work included developing the first university Masters courses for safety in the Netherlands. His group in Delft won the president’s medal of the Ergonomics Society in 2000. He continues to supervise PhD students at Delft
He is a chartered psychologist and registered member of the Ergonomics Society. He is a chartered fellow of IOSH and was given its Distinguished Service Award in 1987. In 2007 he received a similar award for his services to its Dutch equivalent NVVK, as well as the Distinguished Service Award of RoSPA for his contribution to the subject area throughout his career.
He has chaired or sat on numerous advisory, certification and executive committees at national level in the Netherlands and also at European level. These have included the Dutch Standards Institute machinery safety committee, the executive committee of the Dutch Council for Certification, the safety management committee of the Dutch Labour Council, certification bodies for safety professionals in UK, the Netherlands and Australia, and safety advisory committees for Schiphol airport, the development of light rail links in Leiden as well as being independent safety assessor for the high-speed rail link between Amsterdam and Paris.
He was chief editor of the scientific journal Safety Science until 2009 and past or present member of the editorial boards of 6 other scientific journals. Since 1994 he has been a core group member of the European network on New Technology & Work, which organises annual workshops on cutting edge developments in safety. He has co-edited four books arising from those workshops. In addition he has written some 100 peer-reviewed articles and over 300 other publications.
Andrew’s research and consulting have concentrated around the topics of human behaviour in the control of danger, safety training, evaluation of safety interventions, safety management and organisational culture, safety regulation, causal modelling of safety and the fundamental principles of risk control.
Andrew was awarded a Knighthood in the Order of the Dutch Lion in the Dutch birthday honours in 2006 for his services to safety in the Netherlands and internationally and his role in developing the subject as an academic discipline.
Besides English, Andrew speaks Dutch and French fluently.
e-mail: