Strong team appointed to lead the IChemE Safety Centre
25th April 2025
IChemE is delighted to announce the appointment of Mr Jan Tucker as the next Director of the IChemE Safety Centre, working alongside Fiona Macleod, Professor of Process Safety at University of Sheffield, as Chief Technical Officer. Both bring extensive experience of strategic and operational management in a range of settings and geographies. The IChemE safety Centre will also shortly welcome Paul Battersby as Business Development Manager to liaise with and support members in the Australasia region and he will be based in Adelaide, Australia.
Working together with the IChemE Board of Trustees, IChemE Safety Centre Advisory Group and IChemE staff, the IChemE Safety Centre will build on the foundations laid in its first decade of operation to become a global ‘force for good’ – raising standards in process safety across the board, benefitting partners, IChemE members and society as a whole.
The new IChemE Safety Centre team looks forward to engaging with partner companies and universities, to build on relationships with organisations including CCPS, ECPS and the Mary Kay O’Connor Centre, and to engage with the wider IChemE membership to develop an ambitious forward agenda, focussing on gaps and key themes of most impact, to highlight the importance of process safety in all its guises to policymakers and decisionmakers and to set the agenda for leadership in process safety across the globe.
IChemE thanks Deborah Grubbe for her service as Interim Director of the IChemE Safety Centre.
More about the new team
Mr Jan Tucker (MSc Occupational Safety & Health, CMIOSH, MIEMA) has over 30 years senior, international (UK, Europe, USA, South America, Asia, Africa), HSE leadership experience, with major companies (Shell, Baker Hughes, bp, Linde, Syngenta), in major hazard industries (oil and gas, industrial gases, agricultural chemicals), in major projects and operations, developing successful national teams and significantly improving standards and performance.
Professor Fiona Macleod (CEng, FIChemE) teaches on the Master’s program in Process Safety and Loss Prevention at the University of Sheffield. She has extensive operational experience in the chemical, pharmaceutical and power Industries and has been an active member of the IChemE Loss Prevention Bulletin editorial panel since 2013.
Mr Paul Battersby (BEng, Grad Dip Ed & Training of Adults) has a track record of developing strategic partnerships, most recently in his role with the Strategic Partnerships team at The University of Manchester. Before moving into business engagement roles in the UK, he spent over 20 years lecturing in Engineering, OH&S and working with industry sponsors in Australia, the UAE and the UK.
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Chemical, biochemical and process engineering is the application of science, maths and economics in the process of turning raw materials into everyday, and more specialist, products. Professional chemical engineers design, construct and manage process operations all over the world. Oil and gas, pharmaceuticals, food and drink, synthetic fibres and clean drinking water are just some of the products where chemical engineering plays a central role.
IChemE
The Institution of Chemical Engineers (IChemE) advances chemical engineering's contribution worldwide for the benefit of society. We facilitate the development of chemical engineering professionals and provide connections to a powerful network of over 29,000 members in more than 100 countries.
We support our members in applying their expertise and experience to make an influential contribution to solving major global challenges, and are the only organisation permitted to award Chartered Chemical Engineer status and Professional Process Safety Engineer registration.