Committee Members

Wilson has been a member of the Executive Committee since 1966 and became President of the Group in 1994. He is very active in IOSH matters and was National President of the Institution in 1998.  He retired from the Construction Employers Federation in 2002 having been their Health and Safety Manager since 1979. Wilson is now a Consultant Charted Safety and Health Practitioner.October 2013 witnessed Wilson 50 years in H & S and was marked by a presentation at the Safety Group Conference.

In 1988 Wilson was awarded the MBE for services to Health & Safety in Northern Ireland.

Wendy Beatty is HSQE Manager with W&H Alexander (CE) Ltd. She has 15 years experience working in the Civil Engineering & Construction fields having previously worked for Clarke Group, Lisnaskea as H&S Manager. Wendy has both a NEBOSH Diploma in Occupational Safety & Health and a NEBOSH Diploma in Environmental Management.

Wendy graduated in 2007 from the University of Ulster with a First Class Honours Degree in Civil Engineering and in 2015 at the University of Warwick after successfully completing the NEBOSH Diploma in Occupational Health and Safety. Wendy has 16 years’ experience within the Construction Industry with experience in Building, Civils, Infrastructure, Utilities, Healthcare, Homes, Industrial, Rail, Energy & Manufacturing. Wendy is currently the Infrastructure SHE Manager at Translink and sits on the Institution of Civil Engineers (NI) Health & Safety Group.

Ashleigh Birkett practised as a solicitor, specialising in health and safety law, from 2005-2022. Following her studies at Queen's University, Ashleigh initially moved to England to train and practise with an international law firm between 2003 and 2012 before returning to work in Northern Ireland. 

Ashleigh advised in relation to investigations and enforcement action by regulatory bodies. Ashleigh also provided advice and training on a wide range of health and safety topics.

Jimmy is currently Health & Safety  Section Lead at Ulster University . Prior to this he fulfilled the HSET Manager role with the Kerry Group at the Coleraine Site. His first job in Health and Safety was at Michelin in Ballymena where he was Safety Manager. He joined Michelin in 1985 as an electrical apprentice. Having completed the 4 year apprenticeship he worked as a shift spark for 10 years before moving into training, followed by a project and engineering management role Jimmy moved into Safety in January 2009 .He has completed the NEBOSH certificates in health & safety and fire safety management leading on to the completion of the NEBOSH Diploma. Jimmy has served on the committee since January 2010 and was Chair 2014/15.

Ernie Spence has served on the committee since 1997. He has worked both in the private and voluntary sectors in both the business services and supplies sectors. He currently works as a self employed marketing consultant.  After standing in for the Group's previous Secretary he officially moved into the post in January 2008.

Nicola has been a long serving Committee member and is a Past Chairman. Until recently she was  employed as Health & Safety Manager for Lagan Construction and is now an Safety Consultant. Nicola has been working in H&S since leaving university.

Heather is a Health, Safety and Environment Consultant and works on behalf of JTI.

She has worked in the Safety profession since 1990, initially in the Research and Development Division of Gallahers Ltd, Ballymena and since 1997, in their Production Division . Heather has been a committee member since 1990 and was Chair of the group from 1996 until 1999.

John is Corporate Health & Safety Manager at Translink. Prior to joining he spent 7 years as HSQE Manager with H & J Martin. John holds a Master of Science (MSc), Occupational Safety and Health from QUB and was elected onto the committee in 2014.

Jim has served on the Executive Committee for fifteen years and is a past Chairman. Jim is currently the Human Resources Director of Northstone (NI) Ltd. He was awarded the MBE for services to H & S in NI in 2013. Jim is also a committee member of the Buildhealth initiative in construction.

Tom is Head of Health Safety and Environment at Lakeland Dairies. Prior to this he held a similar position at the Balcas Group of Companies. He has been a member of the Executive Committee for over ten years and is a past Chairman. Prior to moving to Northern Ireland Tom held a number of high profile roles in England.

Priscilla is currently the Group Health and Safety Manager at Dale Farm Ltd. Priscilla was previously Head of Global Safety for Sensata Technologies, an organisation with approx. 22,000 employees worldwide.  Prior to this she held the post of regional ESH Manager. In 2003 Priscilla joined Schrader Electronics as HSE Manager and seen her role develop from a one plant operation with 200 employees to a multi-site operation with over 1000 employees in NI.

Priscilla holds an MBA and a BSc Hons Degree in Environmental Health as well as the NEBOSH 2 part Diploma in Occupational Health and Safety. She is a Chartered Member of IOSH and is a Past Chair of the Northern Ireland Safety Group.

Mandy is currently working as a Health, Safety and Environmental Officer with Phoenix Energy and has been with them for over 10 years.  Prior to this she worked as a Health, Safety, Quality and Environmental Manager in Construction and Piling until October 2010.  Mandy has been a member of the committee since 2009 and was Chair of the Group from 2016 to 2017.

David is a H & S Consultant. Prior to this he was employed as a Safety Officer within Northern Ireland Electricity and has been working in the health and safety for 16 years. He has served on the Executive Committee for over ten years and was Chair of the Group from 2002 to 2003.

Declan is Director of SHEQ for McAleer & Rushe. He joined the company in 2010 after spending 4 years as Health & Safety Manager at Farrans. Declan chairs the Construction Employers Federation’s Health and Safety Committee and was a previous Secretary for the Adjudication Society.

Ian Mcilveen is Health & Safety Officer with Hyster-Yale Group. He has 26 years’ experience working in the Manufacturing and Engineering fields.  He has been in current role as H&SO for 3 years, 20 years as the Companies Safety Representative and 10 years previous as Training & Development Officer. Currently involved in implementing HYGs Global H&S Management system across EMEA Plants. Ian has both a NEBOSH Certificate in Occupational Safety & Health and Environmental Management and Lead auditor for ISO45001.

Lyndsey is currently working as a HSEQ manager at Ganson UK Ltd with 8 years’ experience in Health and Safety management within the construction sector.

Lyndsey has recently achieved her NEBOSH Diploma in occupational health and safety, and completed the Environmental Certificate with NEBOSH.

Jim is currently Health, Safety & Training Manager at Creative Composites. Previous to his current role Jim worked at Linamar Light Metals Belfast (formerly Montupet) starting as a Production Operator and finishing as Health, Safety and Training Manager in a career spanning 23 years. Jim has a passion for Health, Safety and Training and really enjoys being able to help people develop their potential.

Outside of work Jim chairs the Advanced Manufacturing and Engineering Sectoral Partnership and sits on the Advanced Manufacturing and Innovation Centre Task & Finish group at QUB.

Will is currently HSE Manager with Ryobi Aluminum Casting (UK) Ltd based in Carrickfergus. Will have been a safety professional since 1995 having started his working career as a maintenance fitter with NIE. Will has experience in manufacturing, construction, infrastructure, quarrying & road surfacing and power generation and high voltage distribution.

Having completed the traditional NEBOSH Certificate & Diploma route to attain Chartered status of IOSH Will then completed an MSc in Occupational Health & Safety with Loughborough University and a MSc in Integrated Environmental Management with Bath University.

Will is a Fellow of the Institute of Industrial Accident Investigators (IIAI) and routinely assists the IIAI and Executive Committee with research around a broad range of safety relates areas.