Tom has over 20 years’ experience in the construction industry. Starting out as an Offshore Project Engineer, he has worked on a wide range of challenging projects across the globe. These range from building and repairing windfarms in the Irish Sea to drilling intake shafts for desalination schemes on the edge of the Atacama Desert. When the ‘Costa Concordia’ cruise ship sank off Italy in 2012, Tom was a member of the small British team sent to work on the subsea frame beneath the wreck. This line of work involved long periods away from home, and when Tom’s children were born he transferred his skills and experiences from the highly-regulated offshore industry to large-scale homebuilding. Tom joined Persimmon in 2019 as one of their internal building inspectors, and since 2021 he has led the BSF Charter Champion scheme for the business. In 2023 Persimmon established a dedicated Building Safety Department, which Tom now manages for Group.

Hannah Johnston is the Building Safety Coordinator at Salix Homes. Hannah combines her previous experience of working in Neighbourhoods with her knowledge gained over the last 4 years working in Building Safety to ensure that the customer is at the forefront of any decisions made in preparation for new legislation. Hannah’s role has required her to be the key contact between DLUCH and the HSE with Salix Homes when looking at policy design trails for the new regime. Her non-technical background has allowed her to see things from the customer’s viewpoint and ensure that processes implemented at Salix will work both for the organisation and its customers.

Stewart Kerr is the Building Safety Manager at Salix Homes with over 16 years working in compliance. Stewart’s remit is to ensure the implementation of Building Safety and Fire Safety Act alongside any changes to the Building Regulation for the design, construction and occupation of its High-Rise Residential Buildings. As part of an Early Adopter organisation Stewart has been heavily involved with government, residential providers and construction companies in the review of documentation and pilot testing of future requirements for those buildings in scope and what that means for the organisation, its customers and key stakeholders.

Ross has been at Martin Arnold since December 2002. He qualified as a Chartered Building Surveyor in 2005. Ross is the Director in charge of Building Surveying, Architecture and Clerk of Works. Ross is also qualified as a member of the Association of Project Safety and has a certificate in Building Information Modelling (BIM) – Project Management. He works predominantly in the residential sector, as well as having a specialist understanding of the education sector. Ross is very experienced in residential development, large scale asset management repairs and maintenance, but over the past few years, Ross has developed a wealth of skills and expertise in Fire Safety. 

•  Member of the RICS
•  Member of the Association of Project Safety
•  Certificate in Building Information Modelling
•  Retrofit Coordinator
•  Qualified Fire Risk Assessor

Captain John Monks has completed over 33 years in aviation and has combined flying and management roles for the last 22 years. He currently holds the position of Director of Safety and Security at British Airways. Reporting to the CEO this role is accountable for the design, implementation, and continuous improvement of the British Airways Management System to ensure compliance with applicable legislation and delivering world class risk management. The role has responsibility for aviation and occupational safety, aviation security, physical and personnel security, aviation cyber security and continuing airworthiness. Previous management roles have included pilot recruitment, pilot training, development of pilot training strategy and aviation safety, risk, and compliance.

Throughout his career John has worked collaboratively with industry agencies and regulators on a variety of subjects and issues including ‘Volcanic Ash’ and ‘Aircraft Tracking’. He is a current member of European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) Stakeholder Advisory Board and a founding member of the European Data4Safety Steering Board. Currently the chair of the IATA Operations Advisory Council he has previously held roles on the IATA Safety Group. He also acts as a ‘specialist advisor’ to the NATS Safety Review Committee, whose role is to monitor and review the effectiveness of safety performance on behalf of the NATS Board the UKs leading ATC service provider. Outside of aviation John holds a non-executive board position for ‘Building a Safer Future’, an organisation set up to improve safety risk management in the construction industry.