Presidential team

Louise became IOSH President in November 2021 having served as a Vice-President for 3 years and President-Elect for one year. Prior to this she was Chair of the Chiltern Branch and remains an active member of the Consultancy Sector Group.

Louise’s Presidential themes focus on “People, Sustainability and Putting the Heart into Health & Safety”. As the world learns to adapt to living in a pandemic and with climate change, she will be focusing on how the modern OSH professional will add value to their organisations by moving beyond the technical to embrace #PowerSkills and what good looks like. By putting people first, by caring about how they feel, we will create inclusive, healthy, and psychologically safe organisations which build teams who trust each other. With trust people will innovate and bring their best selves to solve the world’s greatest challenges.

Louise is a first career Health & Safety Professional with over 30 years’ experience. After graduating from Nottingham Trent University, she worked as an Environmental Health Officer for Cambridge City Council, for the Co-Operative promoting safe working practices and then in the construction sector before becoming Head of Environmental Health & Safety at Savills. She remains a commercial property management OSH specialist. Her consultancy, Hosking Associates, was established in 2005. As an employer and small business owner she has a keen understanding of the distractions and pressures leaders face every day.

Louise is committed to challenging the more traditional image of a Health & Safety professional by focusing on Positive OSH achievements, innovation and highlighting the benefits to businesses of operating in a healthy, safe, sustainable and fair manner. She is an advocate for the use of positive language, so individuals learn from examples of prevention first, best practice rather than negative reinforcements of bad. From here cultural transformation can be achieved throughout organisations which make businesses more efficient, engaging and exciting places to work and do business with.

Louise is a passionate Inclusion champion both within IOSH and outside of it. She is a co-founder of the OneWISH coalition: Women & Inclusion in Safety & Health. This is bringing networks together from around the world to encourage diversity of thought and to help with developing creative professionals’ representative of the modern world of work.

Outside of IOSH Louise is a risk management leader working alongside teams across a range of sectors. A specialist in developing safe, healthy & sustainable management strategies. This is achieved via a tight, agile team who encourage cultural evolution via collaborative approaches whilst remaining unafraid to make strong decisions and be a critical friend when this is required.

Louise is a regular contributor to a wide range of publications and an event speaker. Principally, she comments on all areas of OSH exploring it as a driver for success as well as promoting ethical company values, respect and inclusion to develop businesses with a strong moral back bone. She speaks regularly at conferences promoting the benefits of investing in Human Capital and modern leadership approaches to achieve high OSH standards.

Louise currently lives in Hertfordshire and likes being on holiday.

Lawrence has nearly 30 years of experience in health, safety and environmental management. A Chartered Fellow of IOSH, he has worked and influenced at all levels and across a range of industries including defence, utilities and infrastructure, transport and logistics and research and academia; although he specialises in construction.

He has been active within IOSH for many years serving as a Vice-President, an elected member of Council, a member of the Construction Group and the Professional Standards Committee. He has also been a key player in the development of various IOSH training materials and supporting tools for the profession such as Blueprint.

As the Safety Health and Environment (SHE) Strategy Director for the Costain Group, he oversees the ongoing development and implementation of their SHE strategy and is a keen collaborator, actively supporting the bringing together of diverse minds and organisations. He is regularly asked to input and support industry research and best practice groups. He is keen to influence the elimination of harm in all aspects of the design in the working environment and strived to promote wellbeing and mental health, working with organisations such as Business in The Community (BITC) as a Wellbeing Champion.

Previous appointments have included a five-year period running his own successful consultancy, two Head of Operations appointments and a Senior Tutor / Consultant within a well-known and respected training and consultancy. He has previously held two other roles within Costain: Group SHE Manager and Framework SHE Manager.

Keen to support and mentor others at any stage in their professional development, he currently acts as a mentor within the IOSH Mentoring Scheme and has an extensive training background, having previously acted as a question writer, examiner and accreditation advisor for various UK bodies. Lawrence currently holds the position of part-time Tutor and Dissertation Supervisor on the Health and Safety MSc programme at The University of Portsmouth and has an MSc himself in Workplace Health, awarded by the University of Nottingham. He has successfully completed the Oxford University Executive Strategic Leadership Programme and further extends his access to skills and networks through his membership of the Institute of Environmental Management and Assessment (IEMA) and the Institute of Directors (IoD).

During a very successful 24-year career in the British Army, James attained the rank of Warrant Officer before leaving in 2011. In the last six years, he saw the benefits of Health and Safety as a second career and, using his Army appointments, started to train as a Health and Safety Advisor/Trainer in 2006.

Five years later, after leaving the Army and having worked on many MOD health and safety projects, he moved to Babcock International Plc as a HSE Trainer, then Advisor before becoming a Health and Safety Manager for a large Middle East transport group. He then joined Multiplex Europe Plc as the H&S Lead for the iconic Al Maryah Mall project situated on Al Maryah Island in Abu Dhabi.

He has continued working as an H&E Lead in construction in the UK with Multiplex on the iconic One Nine Elms project in Vauxhall London, after leaving Abu Dhabi, where he had been Multiplex’s Area OHS Manager. He is now the Senior Manager overseeing 3 other projects, 1 Leadenhall, 30 Grosvenor Square and Western Yards.

A Chartered Fellow of IOSH, James is also a Fellow of the Chartered Management Institute, he is also Vice-Chair of the IOSH Construction Group.

Prior to becoming Vice-President in 2021, Angela Abbs has been an active IOSH volunteer for many years. She has been Chair and Secretary of the East Anglia Branch and serves on the Construction Sector Group Committee.  She thoroughly enjoys being involved as an IOSH Mentor and Peer Review Panel member.  She is a speaker and presenter on health and safety subjects and in soft skills.

Angela is a firm believer that technical knowledge should work alongside people skills and maintains that the ability to communicate and build relationships is vital to the skillset of a health and safety professional. Angela has worked in the health and safety industry for upwards of 25 years and comes predominately from a construction background, having studied Surveying at Reading University.

Angela spent many years in the local authority and social housing field, where her health and safety roles were in property and facilities management, maintenance and development.  IOSH has been a strong and important thread throughout her career.

Angela started her own consultancy and training business in 2012 and has clients from varied industries including manufacturing, the motor industry, warehousing, retail, leisure, and theatre. As well as keeping links with her local authority and housing association clients, Angela works with many SME’s too. SME’s are of special interest and Angela understands that they have particular needs, not having the availability of resources or support structure around them as do larger organisations.

Working with many industries means that Angela has a wide and varied knowledge of health and safety, thus she can bring flexibility to the role of Vice-President. Angela is proud to be a Chartered member and the next step for her is her Fellowship. She sees herself as a ‘regular’ IOSH member and a busy volunteer. She embraces the opportunity to be an ambassador for the Institution and for our profession and relishes the global opportunity that the role brings to spread the IOSH message of a healthier and safer world of work.

Although not starting out to be a health and safety professional, Angela finds her career fulfilling and is keen to promote health and safety as a first career of choice.  She wants to continue working with education, and to work with the IOSH Future Leaders Community encouraging younger people to enter the profession at an early stage. Angela has a personal interest in occupational stress, therefore mental health and wellbeing is important to her, and a focus in her ambassadorial role for the Institution.

Richard is the MD of Intuition Strategic Consulting Ltd, also Principal OSH Consultant at the FIA Formula E World Championship Race Series. Richard’s early career as a Paramedic in the UK NHS was diverse, including emergency response, helicopter aircrew, training, and management. While working for the NHS he built a portfolio of skills, which via a circuitous route, including an incurable appetite for volunteering, brought him into OSH as a full-time profession. Richard holds a BSc in OSHEM, a University Diploma in Events Safety Management and is honoured to be Chartered Member of IOSH and a member of the Presidential Team.

Running a global OSH team has allowed Richard to introduce many of the management skills he developed with organisations including the BBC, IOC, FIFA, FA & FIA. He utilises these skills to develop effective systems to reduce risk and to proactively manage safety through inspiration, passion, courage, training and also by encouraging independent decision making. Richard speaks regularly on behalf of the FIA Formula E World Championship, NOEA and IOSH, using these opportunities to share his vision for fully connected, integrated OSH management.

Richard considers his key assets to be - professional drive, passion, and global experience in the high-pressure environment of sports and entertainment. He is required to solve problems in the shortest timeframes, while maintaining relationships with partners, suppliers, and sponsors. TV schedules within sport and broadcast compel him to deliver on time, effectively and most importantly safely, in the most high-pressure and demanding situations.

Richard is a passionate advocate of safety as a first career – he promotes this view through the IOSH mentoring scheme and by promoting youth membership and education through the North Wales IOSH Exec Committee. Richard is equally enthusiastic about the advantages of truly effective sustainability, eclectically powered mobility, autonomous operations temporary hydrogen power installations, and innovation in sustainability – something he is unaspiringly vocal about.

Neil has over 25 years of experience as a Safety Professional and Risk Engineer in various roles covering industries including Food Production, Agriculture, Construction, Engineering, Utilities and Estate Services. He is currently Managing Director and Principal Consultant at Sterling Safety & Risk Services Ltd (SterlingSRS), a consultancy offering strategic safety and risk support services to organisations.

He is also a safety performance improvement specialist, auditor, behavioural safety coach, mentor and trainer, risk control engineer and surveyor.

Neil is holder of the IOSH Presidential Service Gold Award and winner of RS Exceptional Service Award.

He represents IOSH on the Health and Safety Executive National Food Forum, is a member of IOSH Council, and a No Time to Lose ambassador. Meanwhile, he is Vice-Chair of the IOSH Consultancy Group, and Committee Member of the Food and Drink Industries Group and Financial Services Group.

David is a Chartered Safety and Health Practitioner and a Chartered Fellow of IOSH with 40 years of experience in the field. Serving as a Vice-President of IOSH, he also served as a member of Council, Chair of the Fire Risk Management Group and Vice-Chair of the IOSH Swiss Network.

Professionally, he provides expertise in safety and health policy, risk management, safety and health culture, fire safety, psychosocial issues, wellness, training and education (including the training of trainers), as well as advocacy.

David worked for the International Labour Office (ILO) prior to starting his international consultancy. He served as a senior United Nations official with world-wide responsibility for occupational safety and health training and education for the more than 180 member States. His postings included Geneva, Switzerland, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and Bangkok, Thailand.

David holds a PhD in Occupational Safety Engineering; a Master’s Degree in Occupational Education (MOEd); and a Bachelor’s degree in Foreign Languages. He also served in the US as a firefighter/emergency cardiac technician.

Internationally, he continues to be a speaker, moderator and facilitator at many conferences. He also lectured at a number of universities in the Americas, Europe and Africa.

David carried out empirical research addressing the safety and health of Thailand’s indigenous fishermen divers. He is currently leading research on complacency during emergency evacuations through the IOSH Fire Risk Management Group.

David works in English and French with a working knowledge of several other languages.

He is an avid sailor, diver, swimmer, hiker and photographer.

Stuart is the Head of Health and Safety for Mercedes AMG PETRONAS FORMULA ONE TEAM, current World Champions, having won six consecutive double world championships. Stuart has 15 years’ experience as an occupational safety and health professional. In this time, he has worked for KPMG as a subject matter expert within their Sustainability Services team, implemented safety management systems for Veolia Environmental Services across their largest European waste contract and enforced health and safety legislation as an Environmental Health Officer for the City of Westminster and Camden Council.

Proud to be a chartered member of IOSH and working towards Fellowship, Stuart was previously a member of the Performance and Development Committee for IOSH. BSc in Environmental Health and also a qualified OHSAS Lead Auditor. He has also undertaken a bespoke ILM Level 5 Leadership qualification created for Mercedes F1.

Stuart is an advocate for performance-based occupational safety and health. He specialises in enhancing organisational safety performance and driving cultural change, with the intent of developing organisational OSH climates that focus on the creation of safety.

As a first career safety professional, Stuart aims to inspire a future generation of occupational safety and health leaders to choose OSH as their first-choice career, leveraging OSH as a purpose-driven career that has a positive global impact

Joanne is an independent HSQE consultant specialising in the implementation of ISO management systems working closely with SMEs both nationally and internationally in industries ranging from retail, engineering through to the oil and gas industry. Joanne is a lead auditor for ISO 9001, 14001 and 45001 and a trainer for a variety of OH&S and Environmental Certificate and Diploma courses.

Like many, OH&S is Joanne’s second career, the first being genetic imaging. This first career enabled Joanne to work with universities and hospitals across the world in the development of cytogenetic diagnostic software. Working outside of the UK helped develop Joanne’s communication skills and appreciation of different cultures.

Joanne has been an active IOSH volunteer for a number of years working with both the Branch (Merseyside) and Sector Group (Consultancy) Network committees.   Other IOSH volunteering roles have included IOSH’s Peer Review Panel, Nominations Committee and the Mental Health and Wellbeing Focus Group. Joanne is currently the Communications Co-ordinator for the North Cumbria District and after 2 years on IOSH Council, joined IOSH’s Presidential Team as a Vice-President.

Joanne does have a life outside of OH&S and volunteering which includes clay pigeon shooting, archery but most importantly motorbikes.