We’ve appointed four new board directors – and more great new OFR colleagues
Award winning fire engineering practice OFR Consultants has announced the appointment of four colleagues to its board, news which comes amidst a spate of colleague announcements.
Stewart Dabin, Dr Danny Hopkin, Jack Wilshaw and Richard Rankin each join the board as directors, joining existing directors Andy Passingham and Ryan McCreadie. All four new appointees are long serving colleagues at OFR, helping the business in its quest to protect people, property and planet through fire engineering strategies.
London-based Stewart Dabin joined the business in 2018 serving as design director and leads the London Residential sector for the business; fellow Londoner Jack Wilshaw joined in 2019 as design director promoting best practice and managing some large accounts from the capital. Richard Rankin has spent five years at OFR leading the Manchester office – predominantly leading on projects in the residential, healthcare and education sectors, while Dr Danny Hopkin joined the business in 2017, serving as technical director, where he has overseen the development of OFR’s specialist technical skills areas, alongside being a driver behind research studies and outputs.
Lucy Kirkup is HR director at OFR; announcing the appointments she said: “We are proud to announce these changes – a move which underscores our commitment to promoting from within and celebrating the incredible people who make up our OFR team.
“Each new board member is impassioned and dedicated to our mission of creating safer and more sustainable new structures across the built environment, and we look forward to working together in this new era for OFR.”
The news comes following a bumper month of appointments at OFR. Sarah Black joins as principal engineer, while Andrew Price, António Seara Cardoso, Christian Whilde, Finlay Collins and Budmika Karuna Pathirajage all joined as graduate fire engineers. Lucy continued: “Our graduate programme is an annual initiative which ensures that we attract the best fire engineering talent. We nurture our colleagues at every stage, fostering their growth and empowering them to excel in their field. We provide a well-defined career path that ensures their success, whether that’s our graduates or our board members.”
The appointments take the OFR team to more than 120 colleagues, with a continued year-on-year growth reflecting OFR’s success in delivering high quality, technically led, tailored fire safety solutions on projects across the UK and around the world. Since its inception in Manchester in 2016, it has extended its reach across the country, opening offices in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Leeds, Oxford, Bath and London.
Other colleague announcements this month came as Sam Bryant received a research award from the Society of Fire Protection Engineers, with judges acknowledging Sam’s work as “an important piece of research to assist engineers in day-to-day project work”.