HOME     COMPANY PROFILE    FIELDS OF WORK    OUR PEOPLE    CONTACT US    CLIENTS    TRAINING

 

Brendan Fitzgerald • Paul Breen • Ian Bett • Sjaak Lemmens • Nenad Mandic • Jim Shepherd
Kerry Lovell • Andrew McGhee  • Gerard Courteille • Iain Mackinnon Moir 

Fred SoaleAndy Rigg • Dan RalphJohn Gilbert  • Terry Harris 
Obelia Akerman Farhan Jabbar Martin Bardsley  •Emma Hurley 

 


“Our people are our greatest asset.
Make them work for you.”

 

Our People
With their combined experience, Vanguard Solutions' lead personnel are ideally placed to assist clients to achieve their business aims. A broad knowledge base of experience, gained in many different locations and companies around the world, places Vanguard Solutions at the forefront of the consulting sector. For highly specialised input, Vanguard Solutions has extensive contacts and working relationships with companies and individuals worldwide operating at the leading edge of their fields.  Our reputations demonstrate our ability to produce pragmatic solutions which we can now bring to bear in a truly independent consultancy.

 

 

 

 

 

An Introduction to Our Personnel

Brendan Fitzgerald • Paul Breen • Ian Bett • Sjaak Lemmens • Nenad Mandic • Jim Shepherd
Kerry Lovell • Andrew McGhee  • Gerard Courteille • Iain Mackinnon Moir 

Fred SoaleAndy Rigg • Dan RalphJohn Gilbert  • Terry Harris  • Obelia Akerman
Farhan Jabbar Martin Bardsley  • Emma Hurley 

 

 

Brendan Fitzgerald

Brendan Fitzgerald

Brendan is a co-founder and Director of Vanguard Solutions with some 25 years broad experience in Safety and Reliability Engineering, Process Design and Process Simulation. His early career was in process engineering and simulation for Chemshare, with work on several major projects. Thereafter he worked for WS Atkins, then Granherne as a key member of their risk and safety groups. He has broad knowledge of topsides, FPSO and pipeline systems, with extensive experience in feasibility and conceptual design, modification and optimisation and safety/risk assessment of new and existing facilities. He has led teams providing the detailed design input, Formal Safety Assessments and Safety Case development of new designs to five major projects in the Asia Pacific region. He is a Fellow of the Institution of Chemical Engineers.

 

Paul Breen

Paul Breen

Paul is a Director of Vanguard Solutions. In the earlier part of his engineering career, he worked on major projects in the UK nuclear industry, employed by British Nuclear Fuels followed by Taylor Woodrow. During this period he managed multi-discipline design teams and served on the UK Department of Trade and Industry steering committee (1988) for the design of robotic hardware. He then moved to Land & Marine Engineering and spent five years engaged in the design of directional drilling systems, subsea systems and offshore construction equipment. As a consultant in safety, reliability and risk management, he has held senior positions in the oil & gas industry since 1989 with AEA Technology, Brown & Root and AMEC. He has undertaken numerous roles in project management teams within major North Sea Operators in Holland and the UK. Paul moved to Australia with Granherne Pty Ltd in 1997, to manage the HSE function within the Woodside Development Engineering Consultancy. He has been engaged as a risk management consultant on various oil & gas projects in the Australasian region. Paul has formal training and extensive experience as a facilitator of HAZID/HAZOP and similar structured review techniques.

 

Ian Bett

Ian Bett

Ian is a co-founder and Director of Vanguard Solutions having previously worked for ten years with one of the industry’s foremost consultancies. His experience since graduating has included emergency response training, explosion modeling, the performance of all aspects of Formal Safety Assessments and Risk Assessments and other safety studies. He has also helped to develop several of the methodologies now commonly in use within the industry. His work has taken him from the UK where he worked as part of the team developing Safety Cases for the Shell facilities, to Germany as part of a team looking at the refurbishment of a refinery, to Indonesia working for Arco on an upgrade to a gas platform, New Zealand working for STOS on the Safety Cases for the offshore and onshore facilities. Since arriving in Australia he has worked on many more facilities and projects in Western Australia, Sydney, Singapore and Japan.

 

Sjaak Lemmens

Sjaak Lemmens

Sjaak joined the Vanguard Group in February 2004 and set up Vanguard Enviro Pty Ltd on 1 July 2004 to focus further on the environmental capabilities that complement Vanguard Solution’s risk and safety capabilities. Sjaak has 22 years’ experience in environmental science. He is currently engaged as Senior Environmental Advisor to BHPBilliton. He previously was acting Principal Environmental advisor to Woodside, and Lead Environmental Advisor for a number of offshore developments (Woodside Chinguetti, Mauritania; BP Shah Deniz, Azerbaijan; BP Kepodang, Indonesia; BP Lan Tay-Lan Do Nam Con Son, Vietnam). Sjaak has undertaken various ISO 14001-compliance audits. Sjaak has a broad background in marine biology, but he has a strong technical focus. Increasingly he is called upon his environmental engineering capabilities, in addition to his capabilities in environmental management, environmental approvals and EIA capabilities.

 

Nenad Mandic

Nenad Mandic

Nenad has some 15 years of professional experience in risk and safety engineering and management with specialist’s expertise in cost benefit analysis and risk optimization studies during conceptual design of new offshore and onshore oil and gas production and processing facilities, and the upgrading of existing facilities to meet acceptable levels of risk. His areas of expertise include design, development, and implementation of HSE/Safety/Risk Management Systems; formal Safety Assessment and preparation of HSE/Safety Cases for both offshore and onshore oil and gas facilities, as well as development of risk-based cost-benefits analysis computer models for evaluation of justifiable costs for the implementation of various protective measures. Nenad is a proficient user of various safety / risk management software packages including Shell FRED, Shell Shepherd, THESIS, PHAST, CIRRUS, FaultrEASE, as well as all Microsoft Applications.

 

Jim Shepherd

Jim Shepherd

Jim joined Vanguard Solutions and Vanguard Enviro in January 2005 and brings a wealth of Oil and Gas experience to the emerging Environmental Group. He has some 24 years Oil and Gas experience (with six in Australia) in Oil, Major Corporate and Operations HSE, Service Company Exploration, Design House [Conceptual, Front End Engineering Design, Detailed Design and Completions (HU&C)] support. Prior to joining the Oil and Gas industry Jim spent ten years working in Marine Research (Hydrography, Fisheries and Pollution) for the UK Government, Department of Agriculture and Fisheries for Scotland, in Aberdeen Scotland.

 

Kerry Lovell

Kerry Lovell

Kerry joined Vanguard Solutions in 2004 as a Lead Engineer. Kerry is a highly experienced professional with 30 years of specific expertise in Risk Management, Safety / HSE (Health, Safety & Environment) Management Systems, Government Approvals & Liaison, and related aspects of oil and gas management and operations. He has varied experience across all phases within project teams and operating groups, including risk assessment, Safety Case preparation & review, and HAZOP & HAZID facilitation. His experience with management systems includes design, implementation, review and auditing.

 

Andrew McGhee

Andrew McGhee

Andrew has more than 13 years broad experience in the Oil & Gas industry. In his early career he worked for WS Atkins in their risk and safety departments, completing a broad range of studies for offshore oil and gas facilities, onshore oil terminals and refineries. In his later career he moved onto project work, commissioning and operations of offshore production facilities. His experience in process and safety engineering, project work, commissioning activities and operations provides him with an extremely broad knowledge of the oil and gas industry.

Gerard Courteille

Gerard Courteille

Gerard has acquired, over the last 25 years, extensive experience in the risk assessment and managements fields; this, as a key member or associate of a leading classification and certification group. He has an in-depth knowledge of the different safety regulations in force in different parts of the world and, in particular, of the European approach to risk reduction on major hazards installations: Seveso II directive and Safety Cases. He has also been involved in the development of environmental and safety standards and in the implementation, since the inception of such standards, of effective risk management systems that satisfy the Safety Case provisions.

Iain Moir

Iain Mackinnon Moir

Iain joined Vanguard from the UK bringing valuable Safety and Risk Engineering experience from the North Sea and the Nuclear Industry. Iain has two Engineering Master Degrees, including an MSc in Safety Engineering, Reliability and Risk Management. Since joining Vanguard, Iain has worked on projects in the Bass Strait and North West Shelf of Australia, New Zealand and India. He has been involved in both offshore platform and FPSO projects as well as onshore processing plants. He has a broad range of experience including risk and safety assessments, and loss control engineering. Iain has experience of new facility design/FEED projects, detailed design, brownfield modifications and upgrades, and existing facility engineering support. Iain is currently Vanguard Solutions’ office-based project manager. In this role, he is the technical lead and currently manages the projects with seven engineering staff.

Fred Soale

Fred Soale

Fred is a Lead Engineer/Consultant currently responsible for business development in the Mining/Major Hazard Facilities, Dangerous Goods sector on behalf of the Vanguard group. He has expertise in relationship management and a strong investigative capability with experience in analysing complex industrial issues. Fred also has a very strong background in reviewing and assessing environmental and safety management systems and commitment to a continuous improvement methodology.

Andy Rigg

Andy Rigg

Andy joined Vanguard Solutions in 2001 from the UK with 5 years experience in the field of Safety and Risk, mainly in the North Sea Oil and Gas industry.  Following completion of an Engineering degree, he undertook an MSc in Safety Engineering and Risk Management at Aberdeen University.  Working for key North Sea operators in the management of safety and risk and in the development of Safety Case and QRA studies, he has provided valuable support to both project engineering and management teams in greenfield design, brownfield modification projects and operational support contracts.  His ability to recognise areas for continuous improvement in safety through engineering, procedural, operational and behavioural changes and to transfer this knowledge to the work force has provided significant value to the projects he has undertaken.

Dan Ralph

Dan Ralph

Daniel has fourteen years experience in risk and safety design and assessment. His career has included onshore and offshore oil and gas platforms, FPSOs and subsea facilities, and onshore mineral and LNG developments. He has participated in and led safety engineering teams on design projects, and conducted and managed the development of Safety Cases and formal safety assessments, risk based design and decision making activities, reliability and availability studies; hazardous area classification, fault tree analysis; and facilitated HAZOPs, FMECAs, SIL Reviews and HAZID workshops.

 

John Gilbert

John Gilbert

John completed a Bachelor Degree of Petroleum Engineering from the University of Adelaide in 2006. He has a background in engineering in the manufacturing industry, in particular heavy mining consumables manufacture. He is focussing on developing a new skill set as a safety and risk engineer with Vanguard Solutions. for offshore oil and gas installations and has participated in HAZOP and HAZID workshops and Leak-off tests.

 

Terry Harris

Terry Harris

Terry recently joined Vanguard Solutions and brings a variety of experience from the Oil & Gas, Onshore and Rail Industries to the group. He has been involved in both offshore platforms as well as process plants. Terry has experience of new facility design/FEED projects, detailed design, brownfield modifications and upgrades, and existing facility engineering support. He also has experience in HAZOPS and HAZIDS as facilitator. He is a Chartered Chemical Engineer with the IChemE and a member of IEAust.

 

Obelia Akerman

Obelia Akerman

Obelia, who joined Vanguard Enviro in April 2007, has a broad background in the offshore industry.Obelia has a background in Environmental Science, with considerable expertise in the aquaculture industry, gained before joining the offshore industry. Since working for Vanguard Enviro, Obelia has been involved with environmental performance reviews of offshore gas and drilling platforms, preparation of a waste management plan for a major oil an gas facility and has provided scribing services for HAZID and ENVID workshops.

 

Farhan Jabbar

Farhan Jabbar

Farhan joined Vanguard Enviro in May 2007 as an Environmental Consultant. He has a sound background of oil & gas industry including upstream and down stream businesses. In his most recent role he was responsible for a managing HSE processes at about seven downstream operational sites for one of the largest oil & gas company in the world. His major tasks included the development and implementation of HSE Management Systems; Corporate and regional HES reporting, waste monitoring and management, focusing on the Loss Prevention System (LPS) and flourishing HSE awareness. Since working for Vanguard Enviro, Farhan has carried out water and waste audits and assisted with Safety Case preparation.

 

Martin Bardsley

Martin Bardsley

Martin, recently joined vanguard as a senior process engineer. Martin brings valuable experience in process development, sub-sea engineering, process modelling, computer programming, reliability/ safety and design & development. Martin has an honours degree and a PhD in Chemical Engineering. Before joining Vanguard Solutions, Martin was a senior process and safety consultant in Aberdeen where he worked on, amongst others, Qualitative Risk Assessments, Basis of Designs, Performance Standards, SIL and Reliability Assessments and Explosion Analysis for offshore oil & gas projects.

 

Emma Hurley

Emma Hurley

Emma recently joined Vanguard Solutions and brings eleven years of experience from the Oil & Gas industry to the group. She has been involved in both offshore platforms and onshore process plants. With a background in process and safety engineering, Emma has experience of new facility design/FEED projects, detailed design, hazardous area classification, brownfield modifications and upgrades and site based facility engineering support. She has experience in HAZOPs, HAZIDs and SIL reviews as a participant, scribe and facilitator.

 

 

Our team of key personnel comprises proven leaders and provides
a solid foundation for the company.
We will deliver new and improved business relationships.

 

HOME     COMPANY PROFILE    FIELDS OF WORK    OUR PEOPLE    CONTACT US    CLIENTS    TRAINING

 

 

Vanguard Solutions © 2004. Correct to August 2007