
Patron
Bob Blackman
MP
Bob Blackman is the Conservative MP for Harrow East and presently serves as Joint Secretary of the prestigious 1922 Committee within Parliament. Bob was London Assembly Member for Brent and Harrow in 2004. Bob was also a member of Brent Council for nearly 24 years. During that time, he led the Conservative Group for 20 years and the Council for 6 years as well as being Deputy Leader of the Council for 4 years in a coalition.
Since being elected as a Member of Parliament in 2010, Bob has actively promoted the safety of buildings and became the Chairman to the Fire Safety and Rescue APPG in December 2021. Since this appointment, he has regularly written to Secretaries of State and relevant Governmental departments, made contributions in the Chamber and met with influential representatives of the sector to help promote the UK as a world leader in Fire Safety and Rescue.
Chair
David O’Neill
MBE FInSTR FICPEM
David’s profile will be updated soon. Thanks for your patience.
Vice Chair
Claire Hoyland
FIRE AID’s activities were directed and coordinated by Claire Hoyland as an employee of UK charity EASST. Claire’s responsibilities at FIRE AID and EASST included the coordination and delivery of a range of projects, activities, and events across Eastern Europe, the Caucasus, and Central Asia, helping to improve emergency response and road safety.
Claire joined FIRE AID and EASST in 2018. She graduated with a Business degree from the Open University whilst travelling extensively and working on various international development projects, including a road safety project with the Ugandan Red Cross Society.
Claire joined us from the national food redistribution charity FareShare, where she developed and managed a project that saw retailers directly donating their surplus food to local charities via an app called FoodCloud. Claire has previously worked on projects with Macmillan Cancer, VSO, World Challenge, the BBC and is a First Aider and Emergency Response volunteer for the British Red Cross. Claire has recently been voted as Vice Chair of FIRE AID.
Trustee
Andrew Ledgerton-Lynch
OBE
Andrew has been the Editor of FIRE magazine for the last 23 years and chaired The Firefighters Charity from 2016-2020, the first non-Fire Service trustee to lead the charity. In his tenure as chair the organisation saw a significant turnaround with the Harcombe House centre undergoing a £1.8 million refurbishment and being repurposed to provide physical, mental and social wellbeing support for the whole family.
Andrew has served as Communications Director of the Fire Sector Federation and officer of the All-Party Parliamentary Fire Safety and Rescue Group. He has also been Editor of International Fire Professional – the journal of the Institution of Fire Engineers – since 2012; and founder and host of the Excellence in Fire & Emergency Awards since 2014.
He is currently a trustee of the Fire Service Research and Training Trust, and media and communications tutor on the International Brigade Command Course. In 2020 Andrew received the Coronavirus Journalism Excellence – Best Comment accolade from the Press Gazette and in 2021 he received international recognition with the Tabbies Editor’s Column Silver Award. In June 2023 Andrew was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in the King’s Birthday Honours for services to The Fire Fighters Charity and Fire Safety.
Trustee
Cameron Black
Cameron’s profile will be updated soon. Thanks for your patience.
Trustee
Heather Jones
Heather Jones, former senior civil servant, Cabinet Office, UK Government, across a 33-year career, mostly in HMRC and including a 6 year secondment to DG TAXUD in the European Commission. Now retired from her public sector role, Heather is also a non-executive Director for the community for the Port of Dover, plus Heather is the senior Brexit and Borders Advisor for ALS-UK, which is part of a much bigger EU and global group, offering customs & other services and digital solutions to trade. Heather also works as a customs advisor in partnership with Home Office, DfT and various UK charities sending humanitarian aid to Ukraine through the short straits.
Trustee
Ian Greenman
Ian worked in the Fire & Rescue Service (FRS) for 34 years, initially in Mid Glamorgan Fire Brigade and then in South Wales FRS. He worked in many different roles and finished as Head of Training & Development for the Service. He retired in 2020. He has a Master’s degree in Management and is a qualified Teacher. He has also completed the Executive Leadership Programme with Warwick University and gained a Post Graduate Strategic Leadership Certificate.
He has a long association with the UKRO having first competed some twenty three years ago, then became an Assessor at UK, International and World level. He then moved into a role of Marketing lead for the Charity before stepping into his current role of Trustee and Director for Organisational Development, Marketing & Communications (ODMC) early in 2020.
He also assists with WRO work and has been a member of the Marketing & Finance Working group for the past eighteen months.
He has an active interest and passion for all aspects of road and safety education and is keen to share knowledge and increase awareness amongst all key partners in the Rescue environment. His current role with UKRO has seen him develop some key initiatives and partnership agreements in advancing professional rescue.
Trustee
Jane Eason
Jane’s profile will be updated soon. Thanks for your patience.
Trustee
Mehrban Sadiq
Mehrban’s profile will be updated soon. Thanks for your patience.
Contact us today to find out how you can be involved in the life-saving work that FIRE AID and our partners are involved in throughout the world.