Our people

Mike was appointed as Chief Executive of the British Safety Council on 1 September 2015. Prior to this, Mike was a co-founder of Global Navigation Solutions, the world's leading provider of paper and digital navigation products and services to commercial shipping.

Previously, Mike held the post of Chief Executive of the United Kingdom Hydrographic Office. Over five years, Mike grew the business substantially, increasing profits and positioning the organisation to respond to increasing competition.

Before moving into the maritime services sector, Mike had a successful 15 years’ career in Financial Services, building HBOS's European Financial Services business and sitting on the boards of HBOS Europe and North America.

Mike qualified as a Chartered Accountant with Price Waterhouse and spent several years at the start of his career in Audit and Consultancy.

Roni joined the organisation in March 2001 having previously held various senior positions at Auto Trader Group of companies were he was responsible for growing UK and International income as well as profitability.

Since joining British Safety Council Roni has had several roles within the organisation in the commercial area of the business. As Commercial Director, he was instrumental in introducing new British Safety Council products and services as well as IOSH and NEBOSH courses to UK and Global Markets. As Business Development and International Director, he played a leading role to grow our business in International Markets as well as creating a delivery partner in Turkey. More recently Roni has played a key role in setting up our new office in Mumbai enabling us to have business development and delivery capabilities to further support our customers in India.

Appointed as Country Manager India of the British Safety Council on 11 September 2017. 
 
Prior to this, Hemant worked with British Airways in South Asia in various management roles in Commercial, Customer Service, Operations and Safety Management.

From 2014 to 2017, Hemant held the post of Head of Corporate & Travel Management Company Sales India with British Airways, where over three years, he substantially grew the airline’s performance in these high margin business channels by growing market share, increasing revenue and profits.

Before this, Hemant had close to 10 years of experience managing customer service, operations and safety performance for British Airways at Mumbai, Male and Chennai airports. In 2009, he was responsible for managing the start-up of British Airways’ flight operations in the Maldives. During this period, he also held several leadership positions with industry bodies at these airports including being the Chairperson with Mumbai’s Airport Operators Council during 2013-14.

Hemant Sethi holds a Bachelor’s degree in Hotel & Hospitality Management from the Welcomgroup (ITC) Institute in Manipal.

Suresh is a safety professional with significant experience in safety and health in areas of auditing, training and consultancy. He has worked in large Indian conglomerates as well as multinational organizations in his career with his last tenure in Tata Group as Chief - Group Safety & Health, wherein he steered and led efforts in enhancing safety culture & performance while interfacing with CEOs, senior leadership & senior safety professionals of Tata companies.

Lawrence Waterman OBE CFIOSH is the former Chairman of British Safety Council.

He was formerly head of health and safety for the London Olympic Delivery Authority, which proved to be the safest and healthiest major construction project in Europe, incorporating the venues, infrastructure and athletes’ village for the London 2012 Olympic Games, for which he was appointed OBE for services to health and safety in the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Honours.

Lawrence is a founding partner of Park Health and Safety Partnership. He has led the development of occupational health and safety programmes for major projects and organisations, in some of the most challenging environments. Since London 2012, he has been the Director of Health and Safety for the Battersea Power Station Development, an advisor to the Tideway project team and a member of Tarmac’s senior leadership team. He remains the senior adviser to the London Legacy Development Corporation, which continues to develop the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park and is also providing support for the Royal Albert Dock Development.

He is the past president of IOSH. Lawrence is also a visiting professor at Loughborough University, where he both teaches and participates in research.

Mark Hardy was appointed to the Board in August 2012. He qualified as a Solicitor in 1976 and spent 16 years in private practice in Jersey and London, before moving into the pharmaceutical industry. Recently in his role as Company Secretary of the pharmaceutical company UCB Celltech, Mark has dealt with insurance matters and is a trustee of several defined benefit pension schemes.

Appointed to the Board in August 2017, Philip has over 30 years’ experience of working in a regulatory environment originally joining the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) as a Factory Inspector. He spent a period working in the Department for Work and Pensions to head up the Health and Safety Sponsorship Team, advising Government Ministers on health and safety at work policy and the work of the Health and Safety Executive. More recently he was HSE’s Chief Inspector of Construction before taking up his current role as Head of HSE’s Operational Strategy Division.

Ian is a chartered management accountant by profession and has held director positions in various companies for the last 15 years. He has extensive experience in the field of financial planning as well as being commercially focused, with experience in areas of IT and business performance improvement. Being a Trustee for a local childcare charity, he understands the duties and responsibilities that the trustee position requires.

Matthew currently works as a support centre retail director with Co-op Retail. He manages the retail risks and health and safety for food, as well as for operational and legislative changes. He is people-oriented and passionate about workers’ wellbeing.

Samantha is an experienced executive, working primarily in the field of health and wellbeing, and more recently as chief executive of the General Optical Council, the UK wide regulator for optical professionals and businesses. She is currently on sabbatical, doing a PhD on altruism at Bath University. Samantha has a strong track record in organisational development and change within the public and voluntary sector. 

Stephen was appointed to the Board in August 2018.  He left school at the age of 15 with no qualifications.  He subsequently gained two degrees and a host of vocational qualifications, all through part-time study.  He started his academic career as a lecturer in 1977 before becoming a 6th Form college principal in 1996. His subsequent posts include senior manager at Ofsted, director of education at Tower Hamlets and CEO of Midkent College where he retired from in 2016. In addition, he was a non-executive director of Pearson Education Ltd from 2000-18. Stephen was awarded the OBE in 2013, for services to Further education.  

Peter McGettrick is the Managing Director of Advisory at Turner & Townsend and is responsible for over 400 professionals working across contract services, consulting, technology, operational excellence, health, safety and quality. Peter has been with Turner & Townsend for over 2 years, and previously spent 15 years at Capita where he was latterly Divisional Managing Director. Peter is originally from Glasgow where he obtained his Bachelors, Masters and MBA degrees and is also a Chartered Safety Practitioner by background. Peter has managed and grown numerous businesses throughout his career and is passionate about creating a high performing environment where people can fulfil their potential. Peter is a keen sportsman and in the past has played squash regionally and coached internationally.

Appointed as a Trustee in October 2018, Jide has a BA in Accounting and Finance (Hons) from University of North London and a MSc in Research & Statistics from City University. He is a transformation delivery manager with over 20 years’ experience in working in various Public Sector organisations. My speciality is to deliver business value through improved IT by enabling business processes and empowering resources through technical and process improvements. He currently works as a Programme and Project Manager at London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham.

Appointed as a Trustee in October 2018, David has 15 years’ experience in senior commercial leadership roles, predominantly in the material handling industry.  David is currently head of division at Piab, a world leader in moving and gripping solutions based on vacuum technology. David has a strong track record driving rapid revenue growth across numerous companies globally.