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Group Contact Details

If you would like further information about joining the group or you have a particular business continuity related topic that feel should be addressed please do not hesitate to contact us. Our contact details are as follows:

Chair:Thomas Croall MEPS AMBCI RRP

Thomas is Corporate Business Continuity Manager for Manchester City Council. His role involves leading and managing the corporate business continuity / crisis management programme for the local government operations across the major metropolitan city. Linked to this role Thomas acts as a senior manager within the City Council’s Civil Contingencies Unit and is responsible for enhancing community resilience by ensuring robust and resilient capability exists to prepare for, respond to, and recover from a disaster that may inflict the city.

Thomas has served as a board member of the Business Continuity Professional Working Group for the last 3 years and assumed chair in December 2009. Thomas is also Chair of the Manchester Business Continuity Forum (MBCF). The public - private collaborative working and partnerships the Forum encourages have been nationally recognised and continue to set new precedents for best practice working within the UK.

Prior to joining Manchester City Council, Thomas worked in both business continuity management and insurance in the financial services.

In his spare time Thomas is training to become an operational member of the International Rescue Corps which is a United Nations Registered UK based charity that provides a global disaster search and rescue capability.

Vice Chair: Wayne Harrop

Secretary: Andy Pepper

Andy Pepper is an experienced emergency management and business continuity professional.  He joined Local Government in 1996 and now has over ten years experience in emergency management and business continuity management (BCM) working in all areas of the profession.  Andy has particularly focused on BCM and he has been responsible for implementing a BCM programme for Cardiff Council.    He has a diploma in Emergency Planning and BCM which were both gained at Coventry University and he also has a Masters in Civil Protection from his studies at Leeds University. 

Andy is now a specialist member of the BCI and is also the secretary of the Emergency Planning Society BCM Group.  In 2006 he was asked by the Cabinet Office to represent all the Welsh Local Authorities on a BCM Practitioners Working Group and some of his has been published on the UK resilience website as a best practice example.  In 2008 Andy became an Associate Director of the Cabinet Office, Civil Contingencies Secretariat Emergency Planning College, lecturing on their advanced BCM courses. 

In 2009 Andy was a runner up in the prestigious CIR Awards `Public Sector Business Continuity Manager` category which he went on to win in 2010.  He is also a fully qualified BS25999 Lead Auditor and has gained experience of auditing in the public and private sector. 

Finance Officer: John Hodgkinson

Webmaster: Paul Brown DiP EP&DM MEPS

Paul is currently Emergency Preparedness Manager for Yorkshire Ambulance Service. He is also a Director of Emergency Masters Ltd, an elite team offering Business Continuity and Emergency Planning Services. Paul joined North Yorkshire Ambulance Service in 1985, as a Trainee Ambulanceman, and has worked for the organisation since then, through its different forms.  His career with the service has incorporated virtually every aspect of the ambulance service’s work: operational response; operational management; command and control; major incident management; emergency planning; business continuity; resource allocation; communications; and system design and reengineering.  Paul continues to be a fully qualified State Registered Paramedic.  He holds a Diploma in Emergency Planning and Disaster Management from Coventry University and is currently studying for a Masters in Civil Protection at University of Leeds. Paul is also an experienced mountaineer and a qualified Rock Climbing Instructor.  Each August Paul is a volunteer leader at a youth camp.

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