Meet the NucSIG Steering Group
Members:
Michelle Pearse, Karine Rackham, Mark Sweeney, David Edwards, Jim Hockenhull, Louis Redding, Trevor England, Clelia Chang Fong, Rebecca Tomlinson, Owen Tennant, Satbir Singh, Ross Nicol, Victoria Derbyshire, Howard Cooper, Shauna Davis, Tom Hockings, Graeme Talbot, Alan Grogan, Matthew Peckford, Tom Gould, Thom Beaumont, Spencer Hollands and Mark Parry.
The NucSIG Terms of Reference (TOR) document can be reviewed here : NucSIG ToR
NucSIG Chair
Richard Hibbert
BSc (Hons), PhD, CChem, MRSC, CQP MCQI, AIEMA
After graduating with a BSc (Hons) in Chemistry, Richard completed his PhD in inorganic chemistry at Nottingham University. He spent a further four years at the University as a Postdoctoral Fellow and then as a Teaching Fellow. He then joined UKAEA and carried out technical support work for a number of customers including; British Nuclear Fuels Ltd, Central Electricity Generating Board and UK Nirex Ltd. He was involved in carrying out work on the corrosion of CAGR fuel pin cladding both during air ingress shutdowns and during storage in the Sellafield ponds. He also carried out studies in relation to the final disposal of radioactive waste and supervised the analytical chemistry laboratory at Sellafield borehole 2 for a period.
After ten years in technical support roles, Richard held a number of senior quality roles in UKAEA before eventually becoming UKAEA Quality Manager. He played a leading role in the development of UKAEA’s integrated management system. During his time as UKAEA Quality Manager he supervised the transition of the UKAEA management system to facilitate the formation of RSRL and DSRL as separate companies. He has been a member of CQI since 1996 and is also an IRCA Lead Assessor.
Richard was RSRL Head of Quality and Management Systems from the date of RSRL formation until its merger with Magnox. During his time in RSRL, he was involved in a major revision and simplification of the RSRL management system. He was also involved in a number of other successful improvement projects. He became a member of the NucSIG Steering Group in May 2010. He acted as an editor and contributor for the 2013 version of the Nuclear Quality Knowledge (NQK) publication on the NucSIG website.
Richard acted as a point of contact with the Office of Nuclear Regulation regarding the re-licencing of Harwell and Winfrith as part of Magnox. Re-licencing was completed in April 2015. Richard left Magnox in 2017 to become a self-employed consultant.
Richard and Mike Underwood led the review and update of the NQK carried out in 2018. He is also one of the authors of the History of UK Nuclear article published on the NucSIG website. He was Vice Chair of NucSIG from January 2018 until November 2021 when he succeeded Amanda McKay as Chair.
NucSIG Vice Chair
James Brown
CQP MCQI, EngTech, AMInstNDT, L.E.P
Consistent with the vision of previous NucSIG chairs in wanting to keep NucSIG “fresh” James was appointment by NucSIG as a next generation member in 2014. Since his appointment James has held the secretary role on the steering group and has now been enrolled in to his new position of Vice chair for NucSIG supporting the new Chair Richard Hibbert.
James also currently holds the position of Chair of the Nuclear Next Generation (NNG) working group which he Co-founded with the help of others. The NNG has the intention to inspire the next generation of quality professional at various educational levels in a bid to help rectify the skills shortage, diversify the demographic within the sector and to provide the next generation with a foundation of support and development opportunities .
James' carer started when he joined the Engineering College at Cammell Laird ship building yard in Merseyside as a school leaver in the position of apprentice in Welding / Fabrication. He then moved in to Quality / Technical services and completed his higher-level vocation Qualification at the college while also employed and working at Shell Oil Refinery in Ellesmere Port. James took a lead Quality role overseeing verification, oversight and inspection activities of all site maintenance, major projects and outages on the 256-archer site.
James moved in to the nuclear sector for the first time cutting his teeth as a Quality Control Coordinator / inspection manger ensuring the 70 strong project QC inspection team were mobilised efficiently and was also involved with the QA side of the project and supply chain from evaluation tendering documents to auditing, supplier document reviews, KPI’s and monitoring.
James has subsequently taken a number of Quality Assurance and Management roles within the sector for various companies and clients such as Costain, Nuvia, AMA, M&W, JFNL, Sellafield, DSRL, EDF, Magnox and Rolls Royce in areas such as engineering, procurement, construction, decommissioning and New Build.
James is currently employed as a Quality consultant by several EPC contractors within various sectors completing work at all levels of Quality including Quality management integrating and introducing the industry to the Strategic Quality Management (SQM) philosophy, concepts and techniques, providing change management capabilities, completing various audits to IMS ISO standards and supplying inspection and verification capabilities to the industry.
For NucSIG his aim is to provide support to the steering group and membership to ensure best practice, support CPD and maintain the nuclear NQK while also helping to guide and support the next generation of Quality professional within the sector under the arm of the NNG working group.