Steve is currently Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Institution of Fire Engineers and also the Institutions International President for 2015/16. He has an extensive career background in the UK fire and rescue service, his last appointment being as Assistant Commissioner of the London Fire Brigade until 2014 where he was responsible for Operational Resilience. This portfolio covered aspects such as the Operational Planning for significant events in London, Contingency Planning for a range of scenarios, delivering the London Fire Brigade Emergency Planning responsibilities and the delivery of Specialist Operational Capabilities in London, including components of the UK National Resilience Capabilities Programme. For the Olympic and Paralympic games in 2012 Steve undertook a Gold Command role in London and was involved in the work required to ensure that specific measures for the games were correctly planned, implemented and tested. Steve led a team that delivered the arrangements in London and around the UK to provide a consistent and robust approach to the risks faced by UK Fire Services during the games period. Steve has a broad experience base in strategic operational command and has attended a number of high profile events in London, including the civil disturbances of 2011 and the Vauxhall helicopter crash in Central London in 2013. In 2014 Steve was heavily involved in the command and control arrangements for the flooding that affected large parts of the UK. Building on his experience during the Olympic period Steve was the Chief Fire Officers Association lead on Interoperability and a member of the Joint Emergency Services Interoperability Programme Board. Steve has extensive experience in the resilience and civil contingencies field and has worked in forums tasked with ensuring effective response and recovery arrangements are in place in London and Nationally in the UK. Steve has over 25 years of experience in Emergency Management and Resilience following a period of service in the Royal Air Force. He holds a MSc and is a Chartered Engineer. He is currently a director of CFOA National Resilience, a Director of London Fire Brigade Enterprises and also a Director and Chairman of the board of the Institution of Fire Engineers. He became the Institutions 2015/16 International President in July 2015. Steve takes up a new appointment as Head of Programme for London Resilience in September 2015 and will become the senior point of contact for resilience issues in the Capital, with responsibility for implementing the responsibilities of the Mayor of London, the Greater London Authority and coordination of the key response and recovery agencies.