Ali Al Mutawa started his career in 1998 as a Corporal Watch Commander in Dubai. His role was multi-functional and included writing new training and development policies for operational crews, together with setting fire safety inspection regimes and controls. He gained his first degree in ‘Fire Science’ and a diploma degree in ‘Fires in Airports and Seaports’ in an international fire officer training program in Toronto, Canada in 1999. A year later Mr. Al Mutawa was was appointed as a District Officer taking charge of many incidents as the initial incident commander, whilst still continuing studies to advance the protection of life and property and his career.

In 2002 he was appointed as a Station Director focusing on policy writing for operations, communications and training. As the new operations control room was being developed and expanded in 2005 he was deployed as the Senior Group Officer responsible for staffing, training and equipping the control suite.

After graduating with a bachelor degree in ‘Law’ from Dubai Police Academy in 2007 and attaining another diploma for ‘Operations Room Management’ from Germany in 2014, he was promoted to the rank of Senior Assistant General Director for Smart Services, in charge of the department, and in 2017 to Assistant General Director for Smart Services.

Paul joined Cornwall Fire and Rescue Service in September 2009 as Deputy Chief Fire Officer and became Chief Fire Officer in June 2015. This appointment followed 20 years operational and managerial experience in Somerset County Fire Brigade, London Fire Brigade and Devon and Somerset Fire and Rescue Service. He has also worked for the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) as a team leader for Operational Assessment of Service Delivery.

Paul was awarded the Queens Fire Service Medal (QFSM) in the 2018 New Years Honours list and has previously completed the UK Fire and Rescue Service Executive Leadership Programme. He continued his studies with Warwick University to achieve a Masters degree in Public Service Leadership (MSc) and is also a Fellow of the Institution of Fire Engineers (FIFireE).

During his time in Cornwall, Paul has led many change and improvement projects supporting the Service in gaining sector and partner recognition as a high performing service that embraces and delivers wide reaching and varied community safety prevention and response services across Cornwall. An advocate of collaborative working Paul has led on innovative work to introduce a Tri Service Safety Officer role for rural communities in Cornwall and a public realm CCTV function within Cornwall’s Critical Control Centre.

Paul leads the National Fire Chiefs Council International Coordinating Group and has been the UK representative on the Federation of the European Union Fire Officer Associations for the past 10 years as well as an active participant in the European Union exchange of experts programme.

Engineer Hao-giang Tay is a qualified and experienced Fire Engineer. He is a graduate of Heriot-Watt University and a graduate of University of Edinburgh, Scotland with a Master of Science Degree in Fire Safety Engineering.

As the principal fire consultant of Fire Safety Engineering Sdn Bhd, he has over 30 years of experience in fire engineering and fire safety engineering. His company provides advice, consultancy service and training to corporate clients with a holistic approach to sustainable fire safety management and for business continuity. His specialties lie in practical modern fire safety concept and design in terms of fire risk assessment and management; fire protection engineering, life safety and mass evacuation design; mitigation of fire hazards and fire risks, emergency response planning and management.

Fire Engineer Hao-giang Tay is the Past International President and a Trustee and Board of Directors of The Institution of Fire Engineers. He is current Vice President of The Institution of Fire Engineers Malaysia Branch. He is a very active member of LinkedIn Professional network sharing fire safety engineering knowledge and experience with all fire professionals in the world.

He is a permanent technical committee member of Malaysia’s SIRIM Industrial Standard Committee for Fire Safety and Prevention (ISC-M), which oversees all the Technical Committees that develop Malaysian Standards for the Fire Safety and Prevention. He is the chairman of Technical Committee for Fire Properties of Building Materials, responsible for developing series of Malaysian Standards for Laboratory Testing Methodology, Material and System Specification as well as Code of Practice for Passive Fire Protection Systems. He also chairs a Technical Working Group in developing Malaysian Standards for Fire Extinguishers. He is also a member of the Technical Committee for Fire Safety Design for Buildings and a member of the Technical Committee for Clean Agent Fire Suppression System.

He co-authored the technical reference book “Guide to Fire Protection in Malaysia” which is a complimentary guide to Malaysian Uniform Building By-laws. Guide to Fire Protection in Malaysia is now an official guide for fire officers, professional engineers and architects, developers, contractors, building owners, students, etc.

He was invited as a senior lecturer for Master of Science degree course in Building Services Engineering by IIUM (International Islamic University Malaysia).

On the personal level, he has conducted many studies to establish the way forward for sustainable fire engineering concept and published these findings. He is one of the CPD lecturers for Fire and Rescue Department Malaysia, The Institution of Engineers Malaysia, The Institution of Architects Malaysia, The Association of Consulting Engineers Malaysia, The Board of Architects Malaysia, The Institution of Fire Engineers Malaysia and Construction Industry Development Board Malaysia.

He has been invited as a speaker at International Fire conferences in countries such as United States of America, Australia, Hong Kong, China, Singapore, Philippines, India, Taiwan, United Kingdom, South Africa, Netherlands, Republic of Ireland, U.A.E and Malaysia. His paper “Integrated Fire Safety Engineering – The Way Forward” was published at the Europe Fire Advisory Forum 2013, Prague, Republic of Czechoslovakia.

John brings over 15 years of experience as a building enclosure consulting and commissioning consultant.

His expertise includes consulting on residential, commercial and industrial facade assemblies throughout the world, including roofing, claddings, fenestrations and below grade waterproofing.

John has been integral in the development of the building enclosure commissioning (BECx) practice area. His experience encompasses all aspects of BECx from programming/ pre-design, through construction and O&M. His projects have achieved exceptional air leakage results and significant energy performance/savings for owners. John is currently an International Board member for the Building Commissioning Association (BCxA).

Sebastian joined Emirates Safety Laboratory as a Head of Fire Testing. His appointment follows over 10 years of experience in Fire Safety sector both in Research and in corporate sector. He worked in R&D areas such as determination of flammability of carbon fibers composites used in aircrafts, experiments with environmentally friendly alternatives to brominated fire retardants and effect of nanoparticles on flammability properties of various polymers. He also provided research input during early stages of BRE Fire Resilience Index.

He held different positions in the corporate sector and has vast experience in Accreditation and Fire Testing for the Maritime industry; Fire Safety Engineering; establishing façade testing rig with evaluation of fire effluents by FTIR; Active and Passive fire protection systems; and conceptual design and construction of new fire lab for water mist fire testing.

His PhD in Fire Safety Science was focused on smoke and carbon monoxide production during underventilated enclosure fires. Later he published on various topics related to enclosure fire dynamics, material flammability, toxicity and recently co-authored two papers related to fire testing of façades.

Majed holds a Bachelor of Engineering in the field of Fire Engineering and a Master’s Degree in Fire and Explosions Engineering. He has been serving in Saudi Aramco’s Fire Protection Department for the past 13 years, covering duties including fire operations, engineering, and material standardization. He has extensive expertise in vapor cloud explosions (VCEs), fire dynamics simulation, and industrial firefighting. Majed is a registered Professional Engineer with the Saudi Council of Engineers (SCE), a Certified Fire Protection Specialist (CFPS, NFPA), and a Member of the Institute of Fire Engineers (IFE), United Kingdom.

Lt. Rashid is a young officer who joined Dubai Civil Defence in 2015 and then appointed as the head of Contracts Section. He graduated with a bachelor degree in Law and Police Science. Lt. Rashid is a member of many committees and working teams and moderated many events and seminars.

With a Professional career beginning with the Armed Forces of the UAE, the Major General progressed through the ranks undertaking more senior managerial roles and was transferred to commence a strategic role with the Dubai Police Rescue Corps. Where he excelled and displayed a true passion for the Emergency Response sector. As a true visionary his abilities and talents would soon realize a new role as Director General of the Dubai Civil Defence. Whilst the dynamic of Dubai evolved he kept pace, carefully planning the future capabilities whilst proividing an effective Fire & Rescue Service. His pioneering initiatives like ensuring all commercial buildings in Dubai have a 24/7 moinitoring status, the introduction of new UAE Life safety Codes of Practice and UAE Standard Operating Procedures, various fire safety campaigns aimed at Risk Awareness and re-assuring all sectors that the Civil Defence is a highly skilled and motivated entity driven by the latest technologies and apparatus available for FRS, with a commitment to be always accessible for anyone at all times. As a first class leading agency for emergency response in the area and hence is often used as a 'benchmark' for the Region of the GCC. This has now culminated in the Major General being the Commander in Chief of the entire UAE Civil Defence forces.

Major General Rashid Thani Al Matrooshi, Director General, UAE Civil Defence Previously worked as Director of Transportation & Rescue Department - Dubai Police GHQ. He also holds the memberships of Permanent Higher Committee for Crisis & Disaster Management - UAE, Crisis & Disasters Management Team - Dubai, National Fire Protection Association - UAE, Police Operations Higher Committee - UAE, Health & Occupational Safety Committee - Dubai, Higher Committee for Framing National Polices & Strategies - UAE, Police Commanders Council - Ministry of Interior - UAE, Center for Ambulance Services Board of management - Dubai.

Major General Al Matrooshi has been awarded with the fellowship of the Institution of Fire Engineers In recognition of his initiatives and achievements towards fire and life safety within the community.

Peter is a Fire Safety Engineer with over 30 years experience in the Sector. As the Business Development Manager at Warringtonfire, Peter co-ordinates the business development of the Middle East Fire Engineering Consultancy activities in addition to supporting the development of fire strategies, building assurance inspections and fire systems analysis for projects.

Peter is also a Fellow of the Institution of Fire Engineers (IFE) and is currently President of the IFE GCC UAE Branch which has been registered in Dubai through the Dubai Association Centre. His considerable experience in Fire Safety Engineering and Rail Infrastructure Projects includes working as Senior Fire Safety Engineer for Network Rail, as Fire Safety Officer for Royal Berkshire Fire and Rescue Service and as a consultant in both large multi-disciplinary and small independent practices. Peter is actively engaged within the international fire safety community, being a Committee Member of the Railway Industry Fire Association (RIFA), and former finance director of the International Aviation Fire Protection Association (IAFPA).