Jason Hill – President, New Zealand Branch, Vice leader IGA
Jason Hill is an Assistant Commander, for Fire and Emergency New Zealand, Hawke’s Bay District, with responsibility for Hastings coastal/ Heretaunga plains area
He is a Member of the Institution of Fire Engineers (MIFireE) and has been an active member of the New Zealand Branch for 13 years including serving as Secretary for the Otago/Southland Group, Branch Councillor and Executive Director for three years before moving to President in January 2022. He also currently serves as the Vice Leader of the IFE International General Assembly.
Jason has been involved in the fire industry for over 35 years and started his career as a fire firefighter in Dunedin in 1996. His career has continued focusing on the built environment, including spending several years as a specialist fire investigator. More recently he has spent time working in the natural environment in both a response, and risk identification capacity. His current role is a combination of response focus along with ensuring that new construction within the Heretaunga plains meets the requirements of Fire and Emergency New Zealand, in relation to access and firefighting operations. Outside of the BAU role he is certified as an Australian Fire Authorities Council (AFAC) National Resource Sharing centre (NRSC) Deployment Manager. The role of Deployment Manager is to act in a national coordination role, supporting the planned or actual deployment of Australasian resources across New Zealand, Australia and North America. Jason is also part of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) Emergency Management Assistance Team (EMAT) this role entails being able to be immediately deployed (pre or post event) into disaster areas to provide IMT support.
Scott Lanauze – Executive Director
Following his move to tertiary study after completing a trade qualification in 2005, Scott retrained as a Civil Engineering Technician and worked in roles relating to both Transportation and Building Asset Management, the latter including fire engineering designs, evacuation scheme assessments and IQP certification work.
Scott is a Chartered Member (Engineering Technician) of Engineering New Zealand, in addition to his Graduate IFE membership and his Fellow membership of the New Zealand Fire Brigades’ Institute.
Scott currently works for Fire and Emergency New Zealand as a Fire Risk Management Officer in the Otago / Southland region (Region Te Kei). Scott has been involved in the Otago / Southland IFE Group since its formation in 2015 and has also volunteered for Fire and Emergency New Zealand since 2004.
Ed Claridge – Immediate Past President
Ed Claridge is the Principal Fire Engineer for the Auckland Council and technical lead for Fire across the Auckland region.
He is a Companion Fellow of the Institution of Fire Engineers (CFIFireE) and has been an active member of the New Zealand Branch for over 15 years including serving as Branch Councillor, Executive Director for 3 years and was President from 2019 to 2021. Ed has served as leader of the International General Assembly (IGA) and is involved with the IFE Technical Strategic Advisory Group.
Ed holds an honours degree in Fire Science from the University of Leeds, a Master’s degree in Fire Engineering from the University of Canterbury and is a Chartered Professional Engineer. He also holds a number of other memberships and is active with other organisations.
Ed has been involved in the fire industry for over 25 years and started his career as a fire engineer and risk assessor working mainly within the UK industrial sector. He worked at the NZ Fire Service Engineering Unit and as a consultant Fire Engineer on a number of major projects including being the Qualified Fire Engineer for the Waterview tunnel project.
Dr Claire Benson – Branch Councillor
Claire is a fire scientist and engineer, currently employed at Fabrum AFCryo as a safety and compliance officer.
Prior to coming to NZ, as an academic Claire was actively involved in research and consultancy work for over 17 years testing fuels and materials, and working to improve industrial, aviation and building fire hazards. Most recently her work has been focused on hydrogen safety in aviation and industrial contexts.
She holds a Member Grade qualification of the Institution of Fire Engineers (MIFireE), a first-class honours degree in Forensic Science, and a PhD in Chemical Engineering from London South Bank University. She also holds a number of memberships with other science and engineering organisations, and has been an active participant of outreach and science communication work.
Mitchell Brown – Branch Councillor
IFE NZ Branch Councillor Mitchell Brown is currently an Area Commander based in the Manawatu Area of Fire and Emergency New Zealand. He has served 38 years in the Fire Service and latterly Fire and Emergency New Zealand.
Mitchell joined the IFE in 1983 and graduated by examination to the Member grade in 1986. He subsequently passed all IFE Member endorsement papers available over the following years. In 1990 he was elected to the Branch Council and spent 10 years through to 2000 serving the Branch in a variety of roles. These included South Pacific Fire 1996 International Conference Organising Committee member and President of the NZ Branch from 1997-1999. Mitchell led the IFE NZ Branch to its first partnered and joint conference with the Fire Protection Association of NZ in 1997. He chartered the partnership between the IFE, SFPE and FPANZ to see the FireNZ Conference and Exhibition created and established as an annual event in the fire industry of New Zealand, going on to be the MC of the conference over the years six times.
He is a Past President of the Fire Protection Association of New Zealand and a Honorary Lifetime Member. He has been a Rotarian for 30 years and has served as District Governor for the 55 Rotary Clubs and 1700 Rotarian’s in the lower half of the North Island for the 2017/18 year. He is also a past Trustee and Deputy Chair of the Manawatu Community Housing Trust and a former Manawatu AnP Society Committee member.
Mitchell returns to the Branch Council after a 20 year absence, but brings significant fire industry experience and knowledge in governance, strategy and business planning from his life and career roles to benefit the future of the IFE NZ Branch.
Gary Ward – Branch Councillor
Gary joined the Institution of Fire Engineers in 1990 as a student member of the Southern Branch in the UK whilst he was serving in Hampshire Fire Brigade, later Hampshire Fire & Rescue Service. He became a Graduate in 1997 and a Member by examination in 1998. In 2000 Gary transferred to the New Zealand Branch joining the branch Council in August of that year with the responsibility for examinations. He was part of the organising committee for the 2007 IFE conference in Wellington and held the post of Executive Director for the New Zealand Branch from 2007 to 2009. In January 2010 Gary started a three-year term as the President of the New Zealand Branch and became the New Zealand representative on the International General Assembly. In 2012 Gary was elected as the Chairperson of the IFE Asia Pacific Forum, a body formed to raise the profile of the IFE in the Asia Pacific region. During this tenure the New Zealand branch hosted a successful forum attended by both the International President and the Chief Executive Officer. Gary became a Fellow of the Institution in 2013 and following a term as Immediate Past President, stood down form the Branch Council until this year. Gary maintained his professional development with a Graduate Diploma in Emergency Management from Massey University and a Masters degree in Emergency Management from Charles Sturt University.
Gary is currently a Group Manager with Fire & Emergency New Zealand in the Manawatu Whanganui District.
Mark Probert-Southam – Representation/Standards
Mark is the Senior Risk Consultant (Fire) for Marsh Risk Consulting, where he is responsible for developing and implementing services in response to clients’ fire engineering and fire risk management needs. Mark also coordinates property risk control programmes for a number of Marsh New Zealand’s clients operating in the Oil Products, Utilities, Public and Manufacturing sectors.
He holds an Associate Grade qualification of the Institution of Fire Engineers (AIFireE) and has been an active member of the New Zealand Branch for over 3 years, where he sits on various NZ Standards committees and working groups.
Mark has been involved in the fire industry for over 23 years and started his career as a fire fighter in the United Kingdom before returning to study and gaining an honours degree in Fire Science from the University of Leeds, and a Master’s degree in Fire Investigation from the Anglian Ruskin University, Cambridge.