John is the leader of Arup’s Fire Engineering Practice in the Gulf. A Chartered Fire Safety Engineer he holds a BSc Hons in Fire Safety Engineering.

John has gained a wide range of experience in fire engineering in Middle East, Africa, UK, Ireland, Russia and across Continental Europe.

He applies his expertise primarily in fire safety design, on-site implementation and handover of Aviation, Assembly and transportation projects across the built environment.

John is a visiting lecturer at Trinity College Dublin on the fundamentals of fire safety science and fire dynamics.

John’s passion is for advancing the field of fire engineering in its application into the design and operation of the built environment. He represents Arup and the industry in promoting this message on fire safety at targeted fire safety seminars and conferences.

Alexander graduated in 2004 with a Bachelor of Science from the prestigious University of Maryland Fire Protection Engineering program. Upon completing his studies, he worked in the New York office of one of the leading fire engineering consultancies in the US. During this time he worked on various high profile projects such as the original Brooklyn Arena design by Frank Gehry. During his time in New York he was also seconded over a period of time to the Macau office where he was part of a team delivering the third party reviews for various casinos. In 2008, Alexander relocated to the London Office of a multi engineering firm where he again worked on high profile projects where in addition to delivering fire strategies he was responsible for undertaking egress, fire and smoke modelling. After relocating to New York in 2010, two years later Alexander joined the WSP Offices in the Middle East.

In his current role he is responsible for delivering fire strategies for various high profile projects and is also involved during the construction supervision stage to ensure the strategy is implemented as intended. In addition, Alexander serves as a liaison between the design team and authorities such as Dubai Civil Defence to ensure that the designs are in accordance with their expectations and requirements.

Andy has over 25 years of experience in the field of Building and Construction, ranging from structural testing within the nuclear industry to fire testing. Having established the Dubai Cladding Technology Centre and Laboratory, and operated it for 10 years, he has particular knowledge of heavy structures testing and weathertightness testing of cladding, curtain walling and building envelope systems.

He has carried out many consultancy projects as a third-party specialist in the field of building envelope technology.

Andy has a long-standing association with the CIOB. He is currently the Chairman of the Dubai and Northern Emirates Center and he is also an experienced candidate mentor.

He continues to provide input into the UAE code and is a regular speaker at industry technical seminars such as this one.

James A. Bychowski, P.E., has over 30 years of fire protection experience and has worked for Jensen Hughes Engineering (Aon FPE) for over 15 years. As Senior Vice President – Middle East Region, Mr. Bychowski is responsible for all Aon FPE Middle East, Africa, and South East Asia operations.

Mr. Bychowski was responsible for establishing our first Middle East office in Dubai in 2006, and has developed this office into one of Aon FPE’s largest regional offices having a unique mix international professionals. Mr. Bychowski has served as a principal member on the NFPA 72 technical committee, as alternate to the chairman of NFPA 13 and is a founding board member of the International UAE Society of Fire Protection Engineers (SFPE) chapter. He has served in many roles for Aon FPE including Vice President of Sales and Marketing for eight years, Director of Global Marketing for Aon Global Risk Consulting and Vice President and Regional Manager of our flagship Chicago office.

Mr. Bychowski is a professional fire protection engineer with experience in preparation of fire strategies for many types of occupancies including high-rise offices and hotels, shopping malls, airport terminals, aircraft hangars, petrochemical processing, power generation stations, stadiums, convention centers, hospitals, universities, assisted living facilities, museums, and numerous other facilities. He guides our Middle East team in developing fire-safe designs for our clients that meet the requirements of Civil Defense authorities and improve life safety throughout the region.

In addition to fire protection and safety engineering, Mr. Bychowski enjoys ultra-marathon running, open water swimming, mountaineering, rock climbing, triathlon, adventure racing, scuba diving, snowboarding, cross country skiing, and most any other outdoor activity. He has climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro, run across the Grand Canyon and swam in the English Channel.

An electronic systems application design consultant with over 30 years’ experience in building and industrial projects across Europe, the Middle East, Africa and South East Asia as a consultant, contractor and with major manufacturers.

Innovative integration application and solutions designer for iconic projects and contributor to CEN, CIBSE and BSRIA standards in the UK and Europe.

Aaron F. Vanney is Vice President for RJA/JENSEN HUGHES located in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Mr. Vanney specializes in international projects including mixed use high-rise buildings, large assembly occupancies, and healthcare facilities. He has focused his project work in code consulting, developing building fire and life safety strategies, and performance-based design.

Since joining RJA, Mr. Vanney has spent the majority of his career working in the Middle East where he had the opportunity to participated in the design of Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest building. Mr. Vanney has participated in projects throughout the world and is familiar with fire and life safety regulations throughout the Middle East.

He is a graduate of Worcester Polytechnic Institute with a degree in Mechanical Engineering and Fire Protection Engineering. Mr. Vanney is a registered Professional Engineer in the United States. He is a certified NFPA 101 instructor and is a member of the UAE Fire and Life Safety Code of Practice Code Committee. Mr. Vanney is a member of the Society of Fire Protection Engineers (SFPE) and a member of the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA).

Mr. Vanney has participated in international conferences throughout the Middle East, North America, and Asia.

Nusrulha has completed his Diploma & Bachelors in Instrumentation Engineering. He started his career in Factory Automation where he worked with MESSUNG & MITSUBISHI ELECTRIC PLCs in the fields of Programmable Logical Controllers, Control Panels and HMI (Human Machine Interface) Panels. He later worked in Buildings Automation Systems when working with Johnson Controls International.

Nusrulha is competent in BMS, CCTV, Access Control System (Smart Cards & Mobile Key Technologies using low power Bluetooth), Fire Alarm System, Perimeter Protection, ELV, Wireless Telecommunication (P2P & P2MP), PLC, SCADA and RTU. Nusrulha is well versed with Building Management System and Access Control Systems.

He also has a Certification of Honeywell - Notifier Fire Alarm System, Certification of Lenel’s Access Control System & Digital Video-CCTV Certification. Allen Bradley’s - PLC & SCADA Programming. For Wireless Communication – Point to Point & Point to Multipoint, he is Netronics Certified System Specialist. He has worked for different industries such as infrastructure, hospitality, airport, oil & gas.

Paris Stavrianidis is general manager of FM Approvals, a member of the FM Global group. Named to the position in December 2001, Stavrianidis had most recently been the assistant vice president and manager of the FM Approvals electrical department since early2001, during which time he oversaw certification of equipment used in hazardous locations, detection and signaling, and reliability evaluations of PLCs. Stavrianidis served as director of risk and reliability research for the FM Global for the 5 years prior to that. He began his career with FM Global as a fire research scientist in 1987.

During his tenure with FM Global, Stavrianidis has led as well as participated in several committees for the Instrument Society of America, the National Fire Protection Association, the International Electrotechical Commission (IEC), and the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME). He chaired ASME’s Safety Engineering and Risk Analysis Division from 1999 to 2000, and served on the editorial board of the Reliability Engineering and System Safety Journal from 1995 to 1997. He has served on the Board of Directors of the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) and is currently on the Board of directors of the International Fire Sprinkler Association (IFSA), and a member of the United States National Council of IEC. He has authored over 30 research reports and has published 25 technical papers in national and international journals.

Stavrianidis completed both undergraduate and graduate work at Northeastern University in Boston, Mass., USA, earning a bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Mechanical Engineering.

Ms. Rashid-Sumar has over 15 years of experience in building and fire code consulting, fire dynamics, timed egress modeling, and performance based design. Since graduating with a B.S. in Fire Protection Engineering from the University of Maryland, she has performed fire protection evaluations, prepared fire and life safety strategies and design specifications, fire alarm system design, and other engineering analyses and studies.

As a registered Professional Engineer in the United States, she has worked on a multitude of projects including government facilities, hospitals and medical centers, airport terminals, museums, high-rise buildings, hotels, shopping malls, and many special use facilities.

Ms. Rashid-Sumar was Vice President of Middle East Operations for Rolf Jensen & Associates in Dubai prior to joining Aon Fire Protection Engineering in 2014 as Director of Business Development for the Middle East and Project Manager and has continued in this role following the acquisition of Aon Fire Protection Engineering by Jensen Hughes in April 2016.

Shamim was instrumental in establishing and currently serves as President of the UAE International Chapter of the Society of Fire Protection Engineers (SFPE). She is also an NFPA 101 International Instructor, a member of the UAE Code Committee, and a member of the SFPE International Committee on Membership and Chapters Relations.

Gilles Vandevoorde is the General Manager for Building Sciences at Intertek for the GCC markets. Gilles holds a Master’s Degree in Mechanical Engineering and is a 22 plus year veteran of the construction industry. He is a glass expert and has worked in all aspects of the building envelope sector. His previous work ranges from designing and selling aluminum and glass for facades, directing an aluminum contracting company and managing a glass manufacturing float plant in KSA. His focus is on the construction industry providing facade consulting and enclosure commissioning, third party design reviews, field testing, mock-up testing, tender assessments, facade dispute resolution, technical risk assessment and failure investigation/expert witness services. Gilles is widely traveled and understand the different requirements from European and American construction codes and standards.

David has studied Applied Science, (Fire Technology at Swinburne University, Australia), Fire Engineering with the Institute of Fire Engineers London and Advanced Project Management. He has worked in various roles over the past 26 years, the last 6 being in the Middle East.

These include.

• Civil Defence
• Project Management / Construction Supervision Consultancy
• Independent Third Party Inspection
• Fire Safety Consulting
• Insurance Risk Assessment
• Products Fire Testing and Certification

His current role involves managing the Fire Testing Laboratory, the Product Certification Division and the Third Party Fire Inspections Division, including the UKAS & IAS accreditation.

David’s past projects include airports, museums, government facilities, hospitals, high-rise, hotels & hospitality, education, entertainment complexes, stadia, shopping malls, industrial / manufacturing and mixed use facilities.