Accreditation Board

As proposed by the contracting industry, an independent three person Board has been established to approve Operate Safe Accredited Contractors, ensuring the integrity of the system. To provide an oversight by experts in health & safety, training specialists, and client criteria, the Board consists of:

= A senior independent Health & Safety representative, Mike Cosman (Chair).

Mike is the Managing Director of Impac Solutions and Impac Services, New Zealand's leading providers of risk and safety management solutions. He has a wealth of occupational health and safety knowledge with 29 years experience in the UK and New Zealand working at a strategic, tactical and operational level.

= An Infratrain New Zealand representative, John Wills.

John has been the Chief Executive of InfraTrain New Zealand Ltd, and its predecessor, the New Zealand Contracting Industry Training Organisation, since 1999. John represents New Zealand on the Australian Skills DMC Civil Sector Standing Committee; sits on the Polytechnic Consortium Advisory Committee for the New Zealand Diploma of Civil Engineering, and the National Advisory Committee for the New Zealand Institute of Highway Technology; was recently appointed to the Institute of Professional Engineers of NZ Technician Education Standing Committee and in 2006 was appointed as a Companion of IPENZ for services to engineering training.

= A representative of INGENIUM (the Association of Local Government Engineering New Zealand), Alan Tresadern.

Alan Tresadern is Group Manager: Project Services for Waitakere City Council, a multi disciplinary business unit that provides professional engineering services within Council. Alan's team has won awards for architecture, engineering, environmental and management services including both the category and supreme award in the 2007 New Zealand Post Management Excellence Awards.

Board membership may be increased from time to time if necessary, e.g. if it is considered there are conflicts of interest.

The Accreditation Board will meet four times a year to review new applications for each of the three stages (see details) of Operate Safe. Dates for the coming year are as follows: 28 March 2008, 27 June 2008, 26 September 2008, and 30 January 2009. All submissions for accreditation must be submitted to Operate Safe one month prior to these meeting dates (and then on the final Friday of every third month, except December). Successful applicants will be notified and their status published on this web site.