The Fire Industry Association outline how their new CEO, Ian Moore, will deliver the strategy set by the Association’s Board of Directors…
The Fire Industry Association (FIA) is the largest fire protection trade association in the UK with over 650 members and whose main focus is to promote, improve and perfect fire protection methods, devices, services and apparatus; and deliver world class fire safety training.
Moore has a wealth of experience in the fire sector over thirty five years. He started in the Royal Navy where everyone is fully trained to fight fires as “there is no support when your ship is a thousand miles from land”.
After the Royal Navy and few years in the Sultan of Oman’s Armed Forces, he started full time in the fire business with Chubb Alarms. Following training, he designed and sold fire alarm systems for major projects in a variety of applications. This was followed by a move to Cerberus (now Siemens Building Technologies) firstly in the UK, then as General Manager of Taiwan based in Taipei and finally in Dubai.
Next for Moore was to set up a fire division for Zellweger Analytics (now Honeywell Analytics). Zellweger was predominantly a gas detection manufacturer that worked in the petro-chemical industry so flame detection was very much a focus. After three years, a full portfolio of fire detection and alarm products were introduced and all staff trained.
Moving next as the Managing Director of Intelligent Security Limited (ISL), he restructured the business to become profitable and introduced a number of award winning products and systems for the fire and security industry. One of these was the Heartbeat system for detecting the presence of humans inside a vehicle (used in prisons and border control) and more relevant was Video Smoke Detection (VSD). ISL was awarded the Queen’s Award for Innovation and the installation of this system grew in power station turbine halls and road tunnels etc.
VSD was then moved into a newly formed business Detector Technologies Limited (D-Tec) and a new version was formed called FireVu which is still installed around the World successfully today.
The most recent post for Moore was as the Managing Director of Elmdene International and Vice President for Potter Signal.
Moore is relishing his new role as the CEO of the FIA as he feels he can be influential in promoting the professionalism of the fire industry. No longer being aligned to a specific manufacturer, he believes he can champion best practice of the FIA members, emphasise the high level of technical support and promote and shape legislation and the professional standards of the fire industry through close liaison with government and official bodies, as well as other key stakeholders.
Based on his background, Moore is also keen to further the provision of funding for research projects in line with the FIA’s principal objectives and has a few ideas already on how to do this.
As for his views on the fire industry at the moment, it is clear he believes there is a lot of work to be done. Much of this is to do with the government’s stance on taking more of a backward step which started in earnest with the introduction of the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 or “the Fire Safety Order” which applies across England and Wales and came into force on 1 October 2006. What he wants is for the fire industry (talking specifically about installation of fire systems) is to get it to the same level as the gas industry. By law, you must be on the Gas Safe Register to carry out gas work in the United Kingdom, Isle of Man and Guernsey; fire equipment installers should also have this register and the law behind enforcing it.
Another major challenge on the way is the potential of further combining the emergency services. There is a sense in utilising common back-office activities so that funds (which will inevitably shrink) can be focused on where they are most needed, however care must be taken in ensuring the experienced professionalism of our fire and rescue service is not diluted. Although it has been stated that each emergency service will maintain its own funding stream, could this be the start of a full amalgamation? Moore adds “There are a thousand things to do, so I must remain focused by prioritising my activities. My first task is to understand the streams of acronyms that abound in the fire industry. Luckily my office has a created a cheat-sheet for me and I add to it during every meeting I have attended so far. I am very proud to be the CEO of the FIA (there I go with the acronyms) as I know it is highly respected for its position and professionalism and I will be working hard to maintain and grow its influence on behalf of its members”. ■
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Fire Industry Association (FIA)
Tel: +44 (0)203 166 5002
info@fia.uk.com
