Gas Utilisation Conference 2025

Mussa Awaleh

Team Leader, Health and Safety Executive – Building Safety Division

Mussa Awaleh joined Department of Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) in January 2019 and is the policy lead overseeing Government authorised self-certification competent person schemes.  

Shaun Bennett

Director of Property, Derby Homes

Shaun has worked within the public housing sector for over 35 years. Responsible for maintaining council housing in Derby, he focused on the successful delivery of decent homes, modernising the way responsive repairs are delivered and investment planning into the future.

More recently Shaun has focused on regulatory compliance and the delivery of new energy efficient homes.

Shaun is also a board member of Efficiency East Midlands and has supported collaborative working across the region for many years. 

Nick Evans BEng(HONS) MIGEM

Director, Blue Flame Associates Ltd

Nick has worked in the gas industry for over 40 years. He is Director and founder of Blue Flame Associates and Blue Flame Certification Ltd. He is a member of IGEM’s Gas Utilisation Committee and Chairs IGEM/UP/3 and UP/9.

Nick is Vice Chairman of the Combustion Engineering Association, an educational charity involved in industrial combustion industry.
He has been involved in training and auditing of Water Utilities, relating to their biogas safety and compliance with current legislation and standards.

David Garner IENG

Director of Safety, Health and Environment, Cadent

Dave joined Cadent in 1998 and has worked in many engineering and IT roles across the organisation. In his current role as the custodian of Cadent’s Safety, Health and Environment management system, he is accountable for policies, procedures and definition of competence, ensuring legislative compliance and practicable application.  He works closely with the HSE to support his role.

Alongside this, Dave is accountable for Cadent’s crisis and resilience frameworks, including climate adaption. 
 
Accreditations include:
-    Incorporated Engineer with IGEM, 
-    Chair of IGEM G/14 (Competence Standard), 
-    Panel Member of IGEM G/5 (Gas in Multi Occupancy Buildings Standard).
 

Richard Harper

Contract Manager (Gas), EU Skills

Richard started his career as an apprentice service engineer with the West Midlands Gas Board has over 40 years’ experience within the gas utilisation industry. He has carried out a range of roles within the industry including installation and maintenance work heating breakdowns and gas emergency call out. The latter part of Richard’s career has focused on technical safety and compliance and he is currently responsible for managing the Standard Setting Body which sets the training and assessment requirements for Gas Safe Registered engineers.

Neville King MSc

Principal Consultant/Team Leader, DNV

Neville is an engineer with 18 years’ experience in the gas industry and holds a Master’s Degree in Fire and Explosion Engineering from the University of Leeds.

When Neville joined the gas industry in 2006, it was in the LPG sector delivering engineering design and technical support projects.

Since joining DNV in 2009 Neville has built a portfolio of key positions in the technical delivery, consulting and project management of significant and varied natural gas and LPG projects covering; gas distribution, LPG storage, pressure control and metering and utilisation.

In his current role Neville is a Principal Consultant and Team Leader with DNV, specialising in gas safety and compliance management, including safety regulation.

Neville is also a Team leader within the DNV Incident Investigation team and has been involved in the investigation of over 20 gas incidents, including a number of major explosion incidents.

Neville is currently in the process of applying for Chartered Engineer status and has also recently become a member of IGEM's Gas Utilisation Committee where he brings his expertise in LPG.