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People

Our team of expert witnesses and consultants

Professor Richard Booth-removebg-preview (1)
Professor Richard Booth

Director, Consultant and Expert Witness

PhD, DIC, FIMechE, CEng, CFIOSH

Richard leads Hastam’s expert witness services, and provides consultancy and training. All draw on his unique combination of science, engineering, pragmatism and seemingly endless sources of health and safety anecdotes.

Doctor Mark Cooper-removebg-preview (3)
Doctor Mark Cooper

Director, Consultant and Expert Witness

BSc, MEng, PhD, CEng, MIMechE, CFIOSH

Mark is a Chartered Mechanical Engineer, Chartered Environmentalist, and lecturer in Occupational Health and Safety. He specialises in machinery and workplace transport safety and vehicle stability.

Paul
Paul Haxell

Consultant and Expert Witness

MBA BSC CEng MICE FCIM CMIOSH MIOD

Paul enjoyed a successful career in the Civil Engineering sector of the UK Construction Industry before focusing his attention into the Health Safety and Environment domain of UK business. In June 2020 Paul joined the Hastam board.

liz
Liz Shuttleworth

Managing Director

BSc (Hons)

Liz leads our team of independent-minded consultants and trainers. She brings experience in managing multi-disciplinary teams in a large corporate setting and as Managing Director for a charity. Liz manages our sales and marketing team.

Heather-Beach-removebg-preview
Heather Beach

Consultant

Heather Beach is a key influencer in the health and safety sector, founding Women in Health and Safety and The Healthy Work Company. A former director of a FTSE 250 company, she has studied Applied Positive Psychology and Relational Organisational Gestalt. 

Bob Burnup-removebg-preview (1)
Bob Burnup

Expert Witness

Chartered Mechanical Engineer (IMechE), European Engineer Eur Ing

Bob is a chartered mechanical engineer who began his career at British Aerospace and then moved into the Nuclear Industry before setting up his own consulting company specialising in process safety. Since that time Bob has worked in the Oil and Gas and Petrochemical fields.

Tony Cheeseman-removebg-preview
Tony Cheesman

Expert Witness and Consultant

BSc.(Hons), PGDip OHS, CMIOSH

Tony has a been a Principal Examiner for the NEBOSH National Diploma in Occupational Health and Safety and a Director,  Trustee, and Vice Chairman of NEBOSH. As a lecturer for NEBOSH he created and ran the NEBOSH Fire Safety and Risk Management Certificate course. 

Julia Cotton-removebg-preview
Julia Cotton

Consultant

FISTR, MIIRSM, MRSPH, Tech IOSH

Julia worked for almost forty years in the UK university sector, initially as a researcher, technician, and laboratory manager. After several exposures and near-misses with various chemicals, it became clear to her that health and safety were important if she were to get home unscathed.

Steve Fletcher-removebg-preview
Steve Fletcher

Consultant and Trainer

Tech IOSH

Steve Fletcher has in excess of 35 years experience in Leadership and Management, Change Management and Development, Health, Safety, Environmental and Quality (SHEQ) Consultancy and Training.

Andy Gordon-removebg-preview
Andy Gordon

Director, Consultant and Trainer

BSc

Andy Gordon is an experienced leadership consultant and performance coach with a highly accomplished 28 year international background of senior leadership and management roles in the manufacturing industry.

Steve Highley-removebg-preview
Steve Highley

Consultant and Trainer

MSc, BSc, CMIOSH Consultant

Steve oversees the development and delivery of Hastam’s training services and has a background of achieving great safety performance in high-hazard chemical production management. 

Jane
Jane Hopkinson

Consultant

MA (Hons), MSc H Psych

Jane Hopkinson is a highly skilled expert in the field of organisational culture and health and safety. Jane has her own consultancy and also works as a consultant for Hastam. She advises and supports her clients to take a holistic, multidimensional approach to assessing and improving health and safety performance and cultural maturity. 

John Pares-removebg-preview
John Pares

FIIRSM, MCIPD, BEng

John is an expert in safety culture, behavioural safety and Human & Organization Performance (HOP) and has 36 years’ experience working for Unilever, ICI and Givaudan. He has worked in the UK, Hungary and Switzerland in Engineering, HR, Operations, and Environment, Health & Safety. 

sue
Sue Parker-Tantush

Consultant and Trainer

CFIRM, MCIEH

Having enjoyed a 30-year career as a risk and safety professional, Sue more recently led the risk-based safety transformation of two major retailers at both a domestic and global level, driving change and a positive risk safety culture through improved collaboration across siloed organisations.

Afshan Shah-removebg-preview
Afshan Shah

Consultant

Afshan has fourteen years in Health and Safety with an interest in key areas of fire, asbestos and legionella. She is passionate about working with people, building positive relationships and setting high standards and works with clients to gain engagement with stakeholders at all levels within the organisation.

louise
Doctor Louise Smail

Consultant and Expert Witness

PhD MA BSc MBCS, CITP, CMIOSH

Louise has extensive experience in the field of risk management, organisational resilience health, safety and environment law, including with local government, emergency services, the Cabinet Office, process and chemical industries, waste and construction.

Dylan Skelhorn-removebg-preview
Dylan Skelhorn

Motivational Safety Speaker

Dylan has been working as a Motivational Safety Speaker since 2014, sharing his story to try and prevent others having life-changing accidents, which he is very determined and passionate about. He is involved in projects to prevent Working At Height injuries and deaths but his story is relevant in any sector because it is about a life-changing accident.

Nick Staley-removebg-preview
Nick Staley

Consultant and Trainer

MBA, DMS

Nick comes to HASTAM as an associate consultant after 30 years service in the Metropolitan Police, where he spent 17 years as a chief inspector in counter terrorism protective security. Nick has wide ranging experience in threat and risk assessment, designing and implementing complex plans for high risk events and sites.

Doctor David Wenham-removebg-preview
Doctor David Wenham

Consultant and Expert Witness

BSc, MSc, PhD, DipSH, Dip Law, AdvDipEdMan, CChem, MRSC, CFIOSH, FHEA

David’s main areas are occupational health and safety law, risk assessment techniques, safety management and safety culture/climate. An HSE Inspector, David was a lecturer at Loughborough University and Director of the Postgraduate Programme in Occupational Health and Safety Management. 

Professor Richard Booth

Director, Consultant and Expert Witness

PhD, FIMechE, CEng, CFIOSH Chartered Safety and Health Practitioner, Director

After a mechanical engineering apprenticeship at the Motor Industry Research Association (MIRA), Richard Booth was promoted to Research Engineer in 1964 studying vehicle safety and durability. He was appointed as a Lecturer in Safety and Health at Aston University in 1972 and received his Chair in 1978. He was elected Professor Emeritus in 2007.

Richard was for many years a part-time safety adviser to a small construction (refractory engineering) company, also Group Safety Adviser for Smith & Nephew (Europe) and the Unilever Group (world-wide). He was, until 2006, one of two Independent Safety, Health and Environment Advisers to Transport for London and a member of the TfL Board’s Safety, Health and Environment Committee. He has published about 150 scientific papers, articles and book chapters and presented in 17 countries world-wide. He has been awarded the Viscount Weir Prize from the Institution of Mechanical Engineers for research on metal fatigue, and the Distinguished Service Award of the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents.

He has carried out extensive research covering, for example, machinery safety, component and structural integrity, safety culture, human factors, design, development and effectiveness of health & safety management systems including a review of safety audit systems, regulatory compliance regimes, accident investigation methodologies, safety and health practitioner competencies, and accident costing (embracing the criteria for reasonable practicability).

Richard’s Expert Witness cases from 2004
  • Bond Pearce acting for HSE: prosecution of Corus UK Ltd (HSW Act sections 2 & 3) following the explosion of Port Talbot Blast Furnace No 5, a COMAH site, in 2001 (2004-2006);
  • Frisby’s acting for HSE: prosecution of AMEC and Shell (HSW Act sections 2 & 3 respectively) following a fatal accident in 2005 on an offshore gas installation. The deceased fell while carrying out maintenance work at height (2007-2008);
  • The claimants: a civil case involving the failure of the new owners of a warehouse, containing flammable and toxic substances, to comply with the terms of purchase. The defendants as a counter-claim argued that safety arrangements were at the time of sale wholly inadequate (2008);
  • DLA Piper acting for Total UK Ltd: (HSW Act sections 2 & 3) prosecutions by the Competent Authority (HSE) following the explosion at the Buncefield Oil Storage Depot in December 2005 (2009-2010);
  • Berryman, acting for the defendant: prosecution under PUWER of a food company following a major-injury accident when a person was trapped by moving machinery (2009);
  • DLA Piper acting for Biolab UK Ltd: Water Resources Act and COMAH prosecution by the Competent Authority (Environment Agency) following the explosion at Biolab’s swimming pool treatment premises in 2006. The explosion led to pollution of the adjacent river. The prosecution, following defence expert evidence, withdrew three out of their four COMAH charges (2010);
  • Shoosmiths acting for a food refinery: a civil case concerning the respective responsibilities of the client and a contractor for an explosion (2010);
  • Bond Pearce acting for HSE: prosecution of EPSCO Ltd under HSW Act section 2 following a drowning in a power station culvert (2011)
  • Shoosmiths acting for Sir Robert McAlpine Ltd (one of three defendants): a civil case following a fatal accident to a cherry picker operator; following defence expert evidence, the case against McAlpine was withdrawn (2012);
  • Addleshaw Goddard acting for Oldham MBC: civil cases involving safety defects in the Council’s swimming pool and library areas in a leisure centre complex associated with poor quality construction work by a contractor (two cases: 2012 & 2013);
  • Lawsons acting for the claimant: a civil case following an accident to a gas fitter injured by a skip that overturned on the premises of KPH (Plant Hire) Ltd (2012-2013);
  • Woodfines acting for the two defendants: gross negligence manslaughter charges following a fatal accident to an HGV driver (2013);
  • DWF acting for Star Autos Ltd (one of four defendants): a civil case following a fatal accident to a lorry-mounted crane driver whose load struck an 11kV overhead line at a music festival (2013);
  • Morton Fraser acting for the claimants: a civil case against EPSCO Ltd and E.ON UK Plc following a drowning in a power station culvert – see above (2013);
  • An LLP: two cases acting for the defendants (HSW Act section 2) involving prosecutions following fatal accidents at work (2013).
  • Mills and Reeve acting for a safety adviser (one of two defendants): a civil case following a serious accident on a construction site. Following expert advice, the case against the adviser was withdrawn (2011);
  • Andersons acting for an abattoir: prospective prosecution following a fatal accident in a refrigeration unit (2012);
  • FBC Manby Bowdler acting for the claimant: a civil case following a serious accident in a night club (2012);
Summary of cases pre-2004

Two civil cases in the USA following power press accidents; a civil case following a fall through a trap door at a theatre during refurbishment work; a civil case against ‘Private Eye’ following a fatal fall from a scaffold during repairs on the M6 motorway; report for the coroner following a fatal injury to an operator of a roof-mounted mobile window cleaning equipment (DP trapped between the machine and a ventilation duct); adjudication report on the hazards of ejected car parts falling onto the adjacent premises from a fragmentiser machine; adjudication report associated with industrial action as a result of wheels falling off ambulances in Devon; civil case involving an abattoir worker who received serious lacerations when dismembering beef cattle; fatal accident associated with entanglement on the shaft of a vertical milling machine.

Doctor Mark Cooper

Director, Consultant and Expert Witness

BSc, MEng, PhD, CEng, MIMechE, CFIOSH

Doctor Cooper was a lecturer in Occupational Health and Safety at Aston University. For twelve years he managed Aston’s MSc in Risk Management and Safety Technology.

He is a principal examiner for Unit C of the NEBOSH International Diploma in Occupational Health & Safety. He also specialises in machinery and workplace transport safety and vehicle stability.

Dr Cooper became involved in occupational health and safety after an early career working as a Senior Training Adviser with the Engineering Industry Training Board. His PhD was from Aston University and concerned the effectiveness of workplace training. He has published a number of papers on the subject.

He has worked with several organisations to identify their training needs for safety specialists, worker representatives and others.

Doctor Cooper works as an expert witness in civil and criminal cases. Here are some examples of his previous cases:

  • Birmingham City Council: Expert witness for the prosecution in a case concerning a forklift truck fatality in a retail warehouse.
  • Bishop, Longbotham and Bagnell for the Family of the Deceased: Investigation into an overturned fork lift truck accident at a stone storage yard, Bath.
  • Case involving Suffolk County Council: Concerning an accident involving a disc sanding machine in a school workshop.
  • Provided construction (Isle of Man) assistance in defending a prosecution arising from a double fatality due to an overturned dumper truck on a sewer replacement project.
  • Stewarts Law LLP, London: Expert for the claimant concerning an overturned compact tractor.
  • Forest Safety Products: acted for the company as an expert witness in the Patents County Court.

Paul Haxell

Director, Consultant and Expert Witness

MBA BSC CEng MICE FCIM CMIOSH MIOD

Paul enjoyed a successful career in the Civil Engineering sector of the UK Construction Industry before focusing his attention into the Health Safety and Environment domain of UK business.

His blend of practical experience and business knowledge in combination with his technical excellence in Health, Safety, Environment and Quality have provided Paul with the platform to consistently challenge and improve business performance.

His emphasis has always been to properly understand the business and to then facilitate meaningful solutions that enable organisations to deliver their strategic imperatives without compromising on worker protection. Paul has a depth of experience working with Boards of Directors as both a “critical friend ” as a Non Executive. His coaching and facilitation skills enable him to prompt more critical thinking in the organisation and bringing the real problems to the surface and supporting board/ leadership teams through their subsequent action planning & implementation.

Paul is an accomplished speaker presenting regularly both in the UK and at International conferences.

He currently maintains a Portfolio career enabling him to work in Senior interim roles, act as a Consultant and also support SME businesses. He has extensive involvement with IOSH at a Council and Construction group level in addition to a variety of industry representative roles.

He is Chartered as both a Civil Engineer (CEng MICE) and as a health and safety practitioner. (CMIOSH). His activities have included site construction activities from both a project delivery and a health and safety perspective, working across a wide variety of projects including heavy civil engineering, highways, rail, residential property including new build, demolition and refurbishment.

Paul has extensive coaching and mentoring experience having achieved NLP Master Coach Practitioner status. He also holds Coaching for Performance Bronze certificate and ILM level 3 in Business Mentoring.

Paul completed the Bond Solon course in Criminal Expert Witness

In June 2020 Paul joined the Hastam board as a director.

Liz Shuttleworth

Managing Director

BSc (Hons)

During her career Liz has experienced a wide variety of management roles, and specifically, business management roles. In July 2016 she was elected as Hastam’s Managing Director.

Having managed several multi-groups of staff within large corporate settings Liz understands the issues and frustrations that can occur in this type of role. During her career she has also been the Managing Director of a charity and has learnt a lot about how to flourish on a tight budget!  After this she moved into the world of Health and Safety and developed a head for marketing and sales.  She will continue working on increasing Hastam’s profile within the world of Health and Safety and ensuring Hastam is rightly recognised as the leader of its field across all five streams of its business.

Heather Beach

Consultant

A key influencer in the health and safety sector Heather founded Women in Health and Safety and has been featured in numerous consumer publications and on TV.

Heather speaks French, Spanish and Italian and is fascinated by what it takes for human beings to thrive in life.

How Heather describes herself: Enthusiastic, passionate, curious

Superpowers: Heather won Business Leader of the Year at UBM and Top ten most influential in H&S 2018 and 2019

Strengths: Heather has an innate ability to engage others, can multi-task like no other and has endless energy and drive

Random Fact: When Heather isn’t working she likes to sing Jazz, go on country walks with her right-hand-dog Rocky and bake rustic French bread.

Bob Burnup

Expert Witness

Chartered Mechanical Engineer (IMechE), European Engineer Eur Ing

Bob is a chartered mechanical engineer who began his career at British Aerospace and then moved into the Nuclear Industry before setting up his own consulting company specialising in process safety.

Since that time Bob has worked in the Oil and Gas and Petrochemical fields. As principle author for many QRA and COMAH safety reports for hazardous installations in the UK, Bob is able to apply his extensive process safety knowledge and experience to a wide range of projects. That experience has also allowed Bob to act in the role of HAZOP and LOPA facilitator for many large UK and International companies over the last 10 years.

Tony Cheesman

Expert Witness and Consultant

BSc.(Hons), PGDip OHS, CMIOSH

After graduating with Honours in Electrical Engineering at Aston University, Tony joined TI Crypton designing automotive diagnostic equipment. He worked with automotive companies developing electronic engine diagnostic equipment and also wheel balancing and steering alignment garage equipment. He joined the University of Warwick and managed the Smallpeice Centre of Advanced Design for Production, teaching and assisting many of the Midlands’ motor companies on the application of CAD/CAM.

He then joined the Health and Safety Executive as an Inspector covering manufacturing in the West Midlands, carrying out inspection and enforcement within the automotive, metalworking, woodworking, printing, food manufacture and packaging, gas safety sectors and Local Authorities. At HSE Tony completed his Postgraduate Diploma in Occupational Health and Safety including legal training at Warwick School of Law. He re-joined the private sector when he took over the Health and Safety training and consultancy section at West Anglia Training Association in Huntingdon, helping WATA achieve the highest number of NEBOSH awards of any training company. During this time, he was granted a warrant as an Environmental Health Officer for a local authority to assist in investigations. He has also been Principal Examiner for the NEBOSH National Diploma in Occupational Health and Safety and a Director and Trustee of NEBOSH including a year as Vice Chairman. He has written and had published articles in ‘Health and Safety Matters’ on dust explosions (including DSEAR) and pressure systems for NEBOSH Diploma students. He was a lecturer on the NEBOSH National Diploma and created and ran the NEBOSH Fire Safety and Risk Management Certificate course.

He is experienced in machinery safety, both metalworking machine tools, automotive manufacturing and woodworking and has carried out a number of prosecutions while at HSE, on machine tools, fire and explosion, COSHH, food packaging machinery, gas safety and local authorities. He has experience in incident and accident investigation both from HSE and subsequently in the private sector acting on behalf of Local Authorities. This covered manufacturing incidents, electrical accidents, legionella and fire and explosion incidents.

He has acted as an expert witness for a Local Authority prosecution of a hotel regarding a fatal fall from a window and acted in a civil case for the relatives of the deceased.

Julia Cotton

Consultant

FISTR, MIIRSM, MRSPH, Tech IOSH

Julia Cotton has worked in UK universities for forty years, as a technician, researcher, laboratory manager and health and safety advisor. She was the Lead Auditor at Imperial College London for twenty years, auditing across academic and support service functions. Her advice on auditing and implementing health and safety management systems has been sought by many UK universities and she contributed the chapter on auditing in “Challenges for health and safety in higher education and research organisations” (Kuzmina and Hoyle), RSC 2019. She is a qualified trainer, personal development mentor and coach for the Institute of International Risk Management, and also for those who wish to become health and safety professionals.

Julia has her own consultancy and also works as a consultant for Hastam. Clients include DFS, Christ Church Canterbury, Corpus Christi Cambridge, University of South Wales, and the European Space Agency, including compiling its annual H&S report, developing and delivering Leadership and Health and Safety Committee member training, and auditing to ISO 45001.

She is a Governor currently at Mordiford CE Primary School and was a Governor for Hereford and Ludlow College. Also she is a member of the Herefordshire Climate & Nature Partnership Board, and Chair of the local Parish Council. She manages her sheep and ten-acre woodland in her spare time.

Steve Fletcher

Consultant and Trainer

Tech IOSH

Steve Fletcher has in excess of 35 years experience in Leadership and Management, Change Management and Development, Health, Safety, Environmental and Quality (SHEQ) Consultancy and Training, initially in operational and strategic roles and specialising in training and consulting during the last 17 years.

Extensive experience in management and training systems and procedures as well as managing large scale projects worldwide, including projects throughout Europe, Canada, Dubai and more recently Russia and Iraq. Where possible Steve’s aim is to deliver a cradle to grave product from concept through to implementation, delivery and audit, be it awarding body, industry specific and/or bespoke.

Taking great pride in all that he does Steve has proven ability honed both in the UK and internationally, across many industries, enabling his clients to see tangible business results quickly and effectively. An example being the implementation of all systems and procedures for two separate Commercial Training Centres, managing and then directing the organisation as the MD for five years with one before being head hunted by a then relatively small NVQ and Commercial Training Centre, Construction Learning World, as the National Manager, which became the largest such provider in the UK, now owned by Pearson Work Based Learning, owners of the Educational Times. More recently work has included contracts for a Middle East training and consultancy provider as a Project Manager responsible for Health, Safety, Environmental and Quality programmes in Russia and Iraq for a major Oil company. Steve is now working on several major contracts at Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted, Birmingham and Glasgow International airports with a preferred International provider where he was awarded, the prestigious Health and Safety consultant of the year for 2017. During 2019 Steve will be working in India for a major blue chip client on various high level projects.

Steve worked closely with the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) in the development and delivery of their Behavioural Change Management courses and in a Management Consulting and Training role across a wide range of industries for them. Steve is registered with Construction Skills as a Site Safety Plus Tutor and the National Construction College as an approved tutor/instructor delivering their full suite of Director, Management, Supervisor, Environmental and Behavioural courses.

Steve has gained various qualifications throughout his working life including NEBOSH, British Safety Council, City and Guilds etc all of which are regularly updated through the CPD programme he follows with the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health. Always striving to improve Steve will be completing his Masters Degree in Health and Safety Management at Loughborough University during 2018-2019.

Andy Gordon

Consultant and Trainer

BSc

Andy Gordon is an experienced leadership consultant and performance coach with a highly accomplished, 28 year background of senior leadership and management roles in the manufacturing industry. More recently, as a transformational safety leadership consultant, Andy has experience of a wide variety of industries (Oil & Gas, Construction, Offshore Installation, Manufacturing, Infrastructure and Defence) and cultures (including Western, Eastern and Southern Europe, Scandinavia and Russia)

 During his 28 year career in the UK paper industry, Andy held many leadership roles including Shift Manager, Project Manager, Production Manager, Manufacturing Manager, Operations Manager and Deputy Operations Director.

He would count among his most significant achievements during this time as: the project management of the first newsprint producer in the world to achieve ISO 9000 registration; being part of the commissioning, start-up and operational team for the largest newsprint machine in the world at the time; leading, managing and developing the highest performing fibre preparation plant of its kind in Europe; and developing an extraordinary safety culture in a manufacturing environment whilst Operations Manager.

As a consultant, Andy is proud to have been an integral part of the team that developed the safety culture on a Russian construction site that resulted in 42 million man hours being worked without a lost time incident. He is also proud of developing a bottom up driven safety leadership cultural programme at a large, London based developer that has generated real positive change acknowledged by their Head of Safety and Board of Directors.

Andy considers his learning journey to be a lifelong pursuit and demonstrates this by his continued personal development such as qualifying as an EMCC, ICF and ILM accredited and endorsed Performance Coach in 2015 and a qualified PRINCE2 Practitioner in 2017.

Andy has additional qualifications as an NLP Master Practitioner as well as IOSH Managing Safely, British Paper Industry Safety Award and a City & Guilds in the control of Legionella. He also works as a Business Improvement Specialist, applying investigation, problem solving and lean manufacturing techniques (6-sigma green belt) to complex technical and adaptive challenges.

Andy is an excellent communicator and is quick to build productive relationships with all levels in an organisation.

Steve Highley

Consultant and Trainer

MSc, BSc, CMIOSH Consultant

Steve joined Hastam as a consultant and trainer in 2010.

A chemical engineer with an MSc in Health and Safety Management, Steve draws on 18 years of industrial experience in projects, production, and safety management in major hazard chemicals manufacturing.  This was followed by 7 years working in major hazard risk control and human factors consultancy, including safety culture evaluation and change using behaviour-based safety principles.

Steve’s primary areas of work with Hastam have been in consultancy and training services.  Areas of ongoing development are expanding and adapting his well-received Process Safety Management and Leadership courses to other industries with high-consequence occupational health and safety risks.

Between 2015-2022 Steve was a director of Hastam.

Jane Hopkinson

Consultant

MA (Hons), MSc H Psych

Jane Hopkinson is a highly skilled expert in the field of organisational culture and health and safety. In addition to working with Hastam, Jane has her own consultancy. 

In her role she advises and supports her clients to take a holistic, multidimensional approach to assessing and improving health and safety performance and cultural maturity. 

Her blend of theoretical knowledge and practical experience, together with excellent communication and facilitation skills allows Jane to work in partnership with her clients from CEO to employee. This ensures identification and understanding of the enablers and challenges faced and consequently permits the development of practical, realistic solutions that are tailored to the unique context of each business.

Until 2022 Jane was a senior psychologist for the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), a role she held for 17 years. During her time at HSE Jane researched, advised and trained colleagues and industry clients on a range of occupational health and safety topics such as organisational culture, behaviour change, stress management and leadership. She is a qualified trainer and an accomplished speaker, regularly presenting at conferences and events around the globe.

Jane was also a key author for a range of Nebosh and HSE training courses and other resources to help organisations improve their health and safety performance.  For example:

  • Nebosh/HSE’s Health and Safety Leadership Excellence training course
  • HSE’s suite of Work-Related Stress Management training courses
  • HSE Achieving Safety Cultural Excellence training course.
  • HSE’s RM3 training course
  • HSE’s Leadership and Worker Involvement Toolkit – an online behaviour change resource with a variety of tools and techniques.

Prior to pursuing her psychology career, Jane spent 15 years as a Registered Nurse within the NHS and the Royal Air Force. Her MSc is in Health Psychology. Consequently, with health so firmly in her background the impact of organisational culture on employee experience, physical and psychological health and wellbeing is a key passion for Jane.

When she is not working Jane is a keen hill walker and runner – with a few half marathons under her belt and the ambition to enter a full marathon one day

John Pares

Consultant and Expert Witness

FIIRSM, MCIPD, BEng

John is an expert in safety culture, behavioural safety and Human & Organization Performance (HOP) and has 36 years’ experience working for Unilever, ICI and Givaudan. He has worked in the UK, Hungary and Switzerland in Engineering, HR, Operations, and Environment, Health & Safety. It’s a career that has been defined by major transformations with two common factors – people and team development; and culture change. Achievements include:

  • Transforming the safety culture in a global organization, while implementing HOP (Human & Organization Performance) and integrating multiple new acquisitions into the safety culture
  • Global roll-out of the Responsible Care Management System (RCMS)
  • Overall project lead for the company’s biggest ever greenfield investment. Including country and site selection, setting up the legal entity in Hungary, leading the design and implementation teams and setting up the local leadership team.
  • Customer-focused leadership of a manufacturing plant in the UK.
  • The HR lead for an exploration of the company’s core values that challenged the leadership and successfully set the scene for further development of the business
  • The HR lead for a site transformation which included a significant headcount reduction, but kept engagement at a high level and avoided alienating the workforce and trade unions.
  • Re-inventing Unilever’s approach to recruiting Engineers

Based in Switzerland, he is a Fellow of iirsm (and chairs the European branch) and a Chartered Member of the Institute of Personnel and Development.

John is an ex-Wales and Great Britain ultramarathon runner and is the reigning Commonwealth Champion at 24 hour running. Since finishing his international athletics career, he has spent four years on the Athletes Commission to UK Athletics, and has taken over as the Chair of Selectors and Manager of the Great Britain 24-hour team, taking them to multiple European and World Championships.

Sue Parker-Tantush

Consultant and Trainer

CFIRM, MCIEH

Having enjoyed a 30-year career as a risk and safety professional Sue more recently led the risk-based safety transformation of two major retailers at both a domestic and global level, driving change and a positive risk safety culture through improved collaboration across siloed organisations.

She has operated up to Board level in the UK and globally which has equipped her with the skills to lead and influence at all levels.

Having always worked in the rapidly changing world of retail, where a passion for the safety of workers needs to be translated into pragmatic and effective solutions, she has carried this through to her work both as a practitioner and as a non-executive director.

This has also equipped her with the skills to work in an agile way, quickly getting to the heart of a problem and finding practical solutions that engage all stakeholders.

She is most proud of her work implementing effective incident reporting solutions in both organisations, which in her last role led to influencing government policy and has spoken about this at conferences .

She is a strong advocate of the 3 Lines of defense model and has seen it work to great effect in both enterprise risk management and safety to drive positive culture change.

Sue is also a certified fellow of the IRM.

Afshan Shah

Consultant

Afshan has fourteen years in Health and Safety with an interest in key areas of fire, asbestos and legionella. She is passionate about working with people, building positive relationships and setting high standards. She enjoys working with clients to gain engagement with stakeholders at all levels within the organisation.

Afshan has extensive experience in the delivery of Health and Safety training.

Projects completed/in progress include:

  • the review of architectural and engineering reports from RIBA stages, including Mechanical, Electrical and Fit Out packages to provide feedback;

  • new builds to be operationally ready in terms of health and safety, including fire safety, for occupancy including building design and Fire Strategy, Health and Safety Management System and Policies;

  • the creation of Fire Safety Management Plans including liaison with Building Control to deal with queries;

  • carrying out of Fire Risk Assessments, including provision of drawings with all fire arrangements and compartmentation identified, review of Emergency Evacuation Plans, together with any remedial action required in an Action Plan with appropriate priorities assigned;

  • conducting Health and Safety inspections including a walk around the site, examination of relevant written documentation and arrangements. Providing a formal report assessing the Health and Safety status of the establishment including a prioritised action plan for any areas identified as requiring further action; and

  • Health and Safety management system documentation creation and review.

She is a Graduate Member of the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH), Associate Member of the Institution of Fire Engineers (IFE) and Associate Member of Institute of Environmental Management and Assessment (IEMA) having completed the NEBOSH Diploma, NEBOSH General, Fire and Construction Certificates and the Fire Protection Association Advanced Fire Risk Assessment Course.

Doctor Louise Smail

Consultant

PhD MA BSc MBCS, CITP, CMIOSH

Louise has extensive experience in the field of risk management, organisational resilience health, safety, and environment law with a wide range of organisations, including local government, emergency services, the Cabinet Office, process and chemical industries, waste and construction.

Louise has experience in the implementation of safety cases both for off-shore and railways and has been involved in a number of human factors projects. Louise also lectures and runs courses and workshops. Louise is the editor and contributor to the book “Corporate Liability: Work related Deaths and Criminal Prosecutions” published Dec 2009 and is also the editor and contributor for the 4th edition, She is also the author of Waste Regulation Law 2016.

Louise has acted as expert witness in a number of instances. She is an expert in the field of health and safety at work and advises companies on corporate manslaughter.

Dylan Skelhorn

Motivational Safety Speaker

Dylan has been working as a Motivational Safety Speaker since 2014, sharing his story to try and prevent others having life-changing accidents, which he is very determined and passionate about. He is involved in projects to prevent Working At Height injuries and deaths but his story is relevant in any sector because it is about a life-changing accident and not just about a fall from height. His story is a harsh reminder to those in all industries and at every level that unfortunately these incidents are still happening today.

He travels the length of the UK and Ireland presenting to lots of companies and is prepared to travel even further to share his story. He has presented to tens of thousands of people. In 2017, Dylan was asked by major national construction company to be their Safety Ambassador and worked with them full time for three years visiting all of their sites and offices.

Nick Staley

Expert Witness

MBA, DMS

Nick comes to HASTAM as an associate consultant after 30 years service in the Metropolitan Police, where he spent 17 years as a chief inspector in counter terrorism protective security, protecting people from serious harm.

Nick has wide ranging experience in threat and risk assessment, designing and implementing complex plans for high risk events and sites.  As the Metropolitan Police’s Principal Counter Terrorism Security coordinator and lead for counter terrorism protective security, Nick has managed and developed high performing individuals and teams delivering critical protective security and risk management services.  During his career he has planned and implemented in excess of 300 security operations and crisis interventions, including national and host city parallel events for London 2012, crowded place management, numerous state events, hostile vehicle mitigation and the combined protective security responses to the Westminster and London Bridge attacks.  As well as being an experienced practitioner and leader, Nick has developed an impressive range of learning and development products for the counter terrorism and security sectors.  He is committed to cross disciplinary working, incorporating safety and health into protective security and makes strenuous efforts to ensure security is an enabler to business rather than being intrusive or a barrier.

Nick is committed to continuous professional development being a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, a Chartered Security Professional and holding Technical Membership of the Institute of Occupational Safety and Health.  Moreover, Nick is currently a Law PhD candidate at the University of Leicester where he is researching the effects of human rights in policing.

His objective is to establish HASTAM as the leading UK authority in the emerging discipline of protective security by equipping businesses and other organisations with the skills and experience required to meet requirements government might place on them.

Doctor David Wenham

Consultant

BSc, MSc, PhD, DipSH, Dip Law, AdvDipEdMan, CChem, MRSC, CFIOSH, FHEA

Dr David Wenham worked initially as an HSE inspector before being appointed as lecturer and programme director in Occupational Health and Safety Management at Loughborough University in 1990. Since retiring from Loughborough he now work as an expert witness/consultant.

His main interests and consultancy work are occupational health and safety law, risk assessment techniques, safety management and safety culture/climate. David works with Hastam as a consultant and Expert Witness.