Team Professionals
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Greg Baker
Director
PhD (Fire Engineering) ME BE MSFPE
Greg Baker has worked for over 35 years in the New Zealand building and construction industry.
About Greg Baker
Greg Baker
Director
PhD (Fire Engineering) ME BE MSFPE
Greg Baker has worked for over 35 years in the New Zealand building and construction industry.
Greg’s working life started in structural engineering consultancy, followed by working for multi-national building products manufacturer James Hardie. In 2002 Greg joined BRANZ (an independent building research institute in Wellington, New Zealand) were he was manager of fire and structural engineering for 13 years. After a period as Chief Scientist at SP Fire Research in Norway from 2015 to 2016, Greg re-joined BRANZ in 2016 as a Senior Fire Research Engineer. In 2018 Greg joined the boutique fire engineering consultancy, Olsson Fire and Risk, which subsequently merged with multi-national consultancy GHD.
At the start of 2020 Greg left GHD to form Fire Research Group Ltd, a specialist consultancy offering research-based expert advice in the field of applied fire engineering. Greg is actively involved in the US-based Society of Fire Protection Engineers (SFPE) where he is chair of the society’s Standing Committee on Research, Tools and Methods. Greg has extensive experience in building code compliance and product development and testing of building products. Greg’s main areas of research speciality are structures in fire, fire performance of external claddings and fire dynamics. Greg has a BE (Civil Honours) from the University of Auckland, and an ME (Fire Engineering) and PhD (Fire Engineering) from the University of Canterbury.
Daniel Nilsson
Director
Docent (Fire Safety
Engineering) PhD BSc MSFPE
Daniel Nilsson has worked in academia at two of the world’s leading fire engineering universities.
About Daniel Nilsson
Daniel Nilsson
Director
Docent (Fire Safety Engineering) PhD BSc MSFPE
Daniel Nilsson has worked in academia at two of the world’s leading fire engineering universities.
From 2002 to 2018 he was an academic staff member at Lund University in Sweden, and in 2018 he took up the position of Professor of Fire Engineering at the University of Canterbury. In 2020, Daniel also became a co-director of Fire Research Group Limited, alongside his continuing academic duties at the University of Canterbury. Daniel is a world-renown expert in the field of human behaviour in fire and has an extensive body of published research on this and associated topics. Recent projects include the use of Virtual Reality, which is a powerful tool for forensic investigation of human behaviour in fire. Daniel also has many years for teaching experience in the area of fire safety systems from Lund University and the University of Canterbury.
Daniel has been involved in ISO standards development activities for many years, since 2014 as Chair of Subcommittee 4 (SC4 – Fire Safety Engineering) within Technical Committee 92 (TC 92 – Fire Safety). Apart from being SC4 chair, Daniel also regularly coordinates Task Groups (TGs) developing standards, such as the TG developing ISO 23932-1:2018 on general principles for Fire Safety Engineering. Daniel has a BSc (Fire Protection Engineering), PhD (Fire Safety Engineering) and is Docent (Fire Safety Engineering) all from Lund University.
Coleen Wade
Director
PhD (Fire Engineering) MS BBSc FSFPE
Colleen Wade is an experienced fire researcher with expertise in fire modelling, reaction to fire and fire resistance.
About Colleen Wade
Colleen Wade
Director
PhD (Fire Engineering) MS BBSc FSFPE
Colleen Wade is an experienced fire researcher with expertise in fire modelling, reaction to fire and fire resistance.
Colleen has worked in fire research for over 30 years, most of that time with the Building Research Association of New Zealand (BRANZ). Colleen was heavily involved in the fire technical input required for the introduction of a performance-based building code in New Zealand in 1992, and in the development of the New Zealand Verification Method C/VM2 for Protection from Fire in 2012. She has done research and consultancy for MBIE (previously Department of Building and Housing, New Zealand) and the Australian Building Codes Board - Fire Code Reform Centre. Colleen is also heavily involved in ISO and SFPE activities internationally. At BRANZ, Colleen was the organisation’s leading expert on matters related to fire science and fire safety engineering research in her role as Principal Fire Research Scientist.
Colleen’s areas of research expertise includes compartment fire modelling, flame spread over interior surfaces and external cladding, post flashover fires and fire dynamics in mass timber buildings. She is best known internationally as the developer of the BRANZFIRE/B-RISK fire model. Colleen has a BBSc (Building Science Honours) from Victoria University of Wellington, an MS (Fire Protection Engineering) from Worcester Polytechnic Institute, USA and a PhD (Fire Engineering) from the University of Canterbury. In 2020, Colleen became a director of Fire Research Group Limited.
Per Olsson
Director
MSc (Fire Engineering)
Per Olsson is an experienced fire engineer having been involved as an expert witness in many legal cases over the last 20 years including arbitration, civil and criminal court, and various tribunals in Sweden, Hong Kong, New Zealand and Australia.
About Per Olsson
Per Olsson
Director
MSc (Fire Engineering)
Per Olsson is an experienced fire engineer having been involved as an expert witness in many legal cases over the last 20 years including arbitration, civil and criminal court, and various tribunals in Sweden, Hong Kong, New Zealand, and Australia.
He has a thorough knowledge and extensive experience in the preparation and presentation of independent expert evidence for clients who anticipate legal action and provides services related to expert witness litigation including advisory consulting, expert testimony, and peer review. Per’s previous expert witness cases have included computer-based modelling techniques, experimental full-scale tests, full site invasive testing, forensic site investigations, mediation and court work including cross-examination. This variety of work has ensured a broad background and experience level to tackle the most complicated expert witness cases.
He has been trained by the engineers’ institutes in Australia and New Zealand, who deliver courses for Engineering Expert Witnesses. Per is a sought-after expert witness in the field of fire safety engineering and is regularly retained by the most prominent legal firms internationally for small and major cases. He is currently Expert Witness (Fire Safety Engineering) in several major litigation cases in New Zealand and Australia, in the High Court, District Court and Supreme Court. Per has a BSc (Fire Protection Engineering) from Lund University, and a MSc (Fire Engineering) from the University of Canterbury.
Luke de Schot
Senior Researcher
MEngSt (Fire Engineering), NZ Certificate in Tikanga (Mātauranga Māori), MEMgt, Diploma in Aeronautical Engineering Management and Certification, BE (Mechanical Engineering)
Luke possesses extensive experience in the realm of fire safety, both as a practicing fire engineer and as a dedicated researcher.
About Luke de Schot
Luke de Schot
Senior Researcher
MSc (Fire Engineering)
MEngSt (Fire Engineering), NZ Certificate in Tikanga (Mātauranga Māori), MEMgt, Diploma in Aeronautical Engineering Management and Certification, BE (Mechanical Engineering)
Luke possesses extensive experience in the realm of fire safety, both as a practicing fire engineer and as a dedicated researcher. He has a track record of executing fire safety designs for a diverse array of structures, encompassing mixed-use facilities, civic buildings, residential complexes, heritage structures, healthcare establishments, offices, and warehouses. His skill set encompasses a range of areas including fire dynamics, human behaviour in fire, egress modelling, fire and smoke modelling, as well as passive fire design and assessment. In addition to his practical experience, Luke has acquired proficiency in supervisory and lecturing roles during his tenure as a PhD candidate at the University of Canterbury.
Research Background
Luke’s research interests mainly lie in the realm of human behaviour in fire. He is currently pursuing doctoral-level research aimed at delving into the utilization of virtual reality as a means for collecting individual movement data within crowds.
This research encompasses the design and development of virtual environments, data collection through motion capture and conventional image analysis methods, as well as the statistical analysis and effective communication of the obtained results.
Furthermore, Luke has taken on the role of guest lecturer for postgraduate fire engineering courses in New Zealand and has participated in co-supervision of undergraduate students.
Josh Gibbons
Researcher
MEngSt (Fire Engineering), BE (Civil Engineering)
Josh is a passionate and inquisitive fire engineer who is enthusiastic about learning, developing and making valuable contributions as an emerging professional in the industry.
About Josh Gibbons
Josh Gibbons
Researcher
MEngSt (Fire Engineering), BE (Civil Engineering)
Josh is a passionate and inquisitive fire engineer who is enthusiastic about learning, developing and making valuable contributions as an emerging professional in the industry.
Josh has worked in the New Zealand fire engineering industry for four years as a practicing fire engineering consultant. Josh has worked on a variety of projects for new and existing buildings encompassing mixed-use facilities, heritage buildings, prisons, schools, offices, warehouses, and commercial establishments. His skillset encompasses fire dynamics, human behaviour in fire, fire and smoke modelling, fire safety systems and construction monitoring. In tandem to his full-time employment, Josh is pursing further education by working towards his Master of Engineering Studies (endorsed in Fire Engineering) at the University of Canterbury.
Research Background
While possessing modest research experience as a fire engineer. Josh is presently pursuing a fire research project as part of the course ENFE681 at the University of Canterbury. The independent research aims to utilise demand-controlled ventilation in smart buildings to accurately estimate the number of occupants in a room of a building. Understanding the quantity and location of occupants at a given time is a critical aspect of dynamic crowd management (DCM). DCM can optimise evacuations by using the sensory infrastructure in a building to identify threats and direct occupants to the most optimal and effective evacuation route. This research encompasses calculation models, data collection, data analysis and effective communication of the obtained results.
Mario Lara Ledermann
Head of FRG - UK
Master of Fire Safety Engineering, BE (Industrial)
Mario has worked in the property and construction industry for fifteen years. This has included the development, design and construction of complex and innovative property developments over three continents , building product R&D, and research.
About Mario Lara Ledermann
Mario Lara Ledermann
Head of FRG - UK
Master of Fire Safety Engineering, BE (Industrial)
Mario has worked in the property and construction industry for fifteen years. This has included the development, design and construction of complex and innovative property developments over three continents , building product R&D, and research. Mario’s areas of expertise include fire safety engineering, building safety, modern methods of construction and material technologies.
Mario’s contribution to the development, design and execution of properties span from developing corporate strategies on risk management and assurance, leading the adoption of innovative technologies and modern methods of construction, and heading R&D projects, focusing on meeting the requirements of local building regulations as well as the needs of key stakeholders such as insurers, developers, investors, asset owner, manufacturers and contractors. Mario has engaged extensively worldwide with governments, civil society and the wider property, construction, insurance and manufacturing industries to address key societal topics, such as building safety and sustainability. He has founded several international industry collaboration clusters; advised on building safety, innovation, technical and risk management matters to property developments in Australia, the United Kingdom, Italy and the United States; and has been invited to participate as a panellist in several high-profile events such as the United Nations Conference of the Parties (COP26, UN managed Blue Zone).
Research Background
Mario has worked for organisations leading research and development in the built environment. From research institutions to commercial developers, designers, main contractors and manufacturers. His broad range of research interests includes performance-based regulation, model verification and validation, passive fire protection, assurance frameworks, radiant fire spread, fire performance of facades, compartment fire dynamics, modern methods of construction, mass timber buildings, design fires, performance of assemblies to bush-fires, fire resistance, flame spread, and reaction-to-fire behaviour of combustible materials.
He has worked on a wide range of projects including:
- Determining barriers to adoption of Engineered Timber in the UK and Italy
- Risk profile of modern methods of construction
- Fire safety of combustible facades
- Fire performance of timber construction
- Risk-informed fire safety regulation.
Dr. Panos Kotsovinos
Senior Researcher
PhD (Structural Fire Safety Engineering), MSc (Structural Engineering), BEng (Civil Engineering)
Dr Kotsovinos is a fire safety expert specialising in the analysis of steel, concrete and timber structures under fire conditions and developing bespoke experimental campaigns to research performance of structures in fire conditions. He has delivered multiple fire safety design projects internationally such as high-rise buildings, bridges, tunnels, stadia and arenas.
About Dr. Panos Kotsovinos
Dr. Panos Kotsovinos
Senior Researcher
PhD (Structural Fire Safety Engineering), MSc (Structural Engineering), BEng (Civil Engineering)
Dr Kotsovinos is a fire safety expert specialising in the analysis of steel, concrete and timber structures under fire conditions and developing bespoke experimental campaigns to research performance of structures in fire conditions. He has delivered multiple fire safety design projects internationally such as high-rise buildings, bridges, tunnels, stadia and arenas.
Dr Kotsovinos has co-authored more than 80 papers in peer-reviewed academic journals and international conferences. Dr Kotsovinos holds visiting academic appointments and supervises research projects at Imperial College London, UK and York University in Toronto, Canada and is a member of various standards making committees. Dr Kotsovinos chaired the BSI panel that revised the BS PD 7974-3 standard on “Structural fire response and fire spread”. He has received awards for his involvement in research and applying cutting edge research to real projects. He lectures frequently at Imperial College London (MSc Module in Structural Fire Engineering) and has previously taught structural engineering courses at the University of Edinburgh.
Expert witness experience
Dr Kotsovinos has recently joined FRG. During his previous time at Arup, Dr Kotsovinos has worked on a number of expert witness proceedings in the United Kingdom. These projects were primarily related
to a large military facility in Scotland with 17 residential buildings and one assembly building as well high-rise hospitals in England. The works focused on a wide range of aspects, including:
- Defects in applied structural fire protection of steel structures
- Remedial solutions on applied structural fire protection
- Combustible external cladding
- Position of cavity barriers in the external wall
- Lack of or defective fire compartmentation
- Fire load densities of occupancies
- Fire sprinkler effectiveness
- Reviewing fire tests of bespoke fire protection proposals
- Interim fire strategies during occupation
Dr Kotsovinos work in expert witness cases has included desktop reviews, theoretical modelling & analysis (including non-linear finite element analysis, risk based assessments and heat transfer analysis) and reviewing the assessments and analyses by other experts.
Research Background
Dr Kotsovinos has worked extensively in the field of fire science, with special focus on structural fire engineering and timber fire safety engineering research. He has experience in leading both experimental campaigns as well as the development of numerical models.
Dr Kotsovinos recently led the CodeRed experimental campaign that investigated fire dynamics in open-plan buildings with an exposed timber ceiling. The bespoke facility built in France, with a floor area of 352 m2, is currently the largest in terms of area fire experiment carried out worldwide in the
field of timber construction. Unique data, new analysis tools as well as several publications led by
Dr Kotsovinos were produced from these experiments.
The CodeRed experimental campaign was built on the success of the “Obora” travelling fire experiments that were carried out previously by Imperial College London in Poland and Dr Kotsovinos was an influential member of the team.
Other experimental research that Dr Kotsovinos was involved included investigating the fire performance of structural cables used in bridges and stadia and prestressing steel used in reinforced concrete construction.
Dr Kotsovinos has also been leading numerical research for the analysis of the thermal and structural response of steel, timber and concrete buildings in fire conditions. In this numerical research he has utilised different software such as LS-DYNA, OpenSees and ABAQUS. Dr Kotsovinos is well known in the research community as an expert in modelling the structural fire response of complex tall buildings including that of the WTC Towers and iconic buildings in London with unusual structural arrangements (bi-linear columns, transfer beams etc).
Dr Kotsovinos has been regular lecturer at Imperial College London on the Structural Fire Engineering Module since its inception in 2016.
Dr Kotsovinos has been thesis supervisor of several PhD, master and undergraduate research projects at Imperial College London and York University Canada.
Dr Kotsovinos has authored or co-authored more than 80 journal papers and conference papers
(h-index: 16, i10-index: 23 and 828 citations in Google scholar) and presented at numerous international conferences. He is also author of several book chapters.
Dr Kotsovinos has been a member of numerous scientific, programme and publication committees.
He has also been a peer-reviewer for numerous international conferences and scientific journals in his areas of expertise.