Meet the team

Having worked for a number of different global consultancy firms, Ian noticed there was a gap in the market. He wanted to be able to offer clients of all sizes a much more bespoke service, with a more agile and focused approach. His goal was to build a business that was attractive to clients and practitioners alike, with the mission of protecting people, assets and reputation. The ethos was, and always has been: people first.

Ian spent 9 years as an armourer in the British Army. This instilled a critical value for safety and taught him a great deal about teamwork and determination, along with the need for a sense of humour when things don’t go to plan!

After leaving the army, he worked with some outstanding health and safety practitioners and business leaders at companies like Det Norske Veritas and DuPont Safety Resources. This helped Ian build a unique approach for his own company centred around people and communication supporting safe and healthy work, rather than being seen as someone who hinders it.  He has since built a new business strategy following attendance on the Goldman Sachs 10,000 UK businesses programme in late 2022, with a plan to grow the team and create a culture with happy colleagues and clients.

Ian’s belief is that, because we spend so much time at work, it’s vital that we enjoy it. However, when he’s not working Ian loves getting outdoors, so you will often find him up a hill with a group of friends or with his dog, Minnie the whippet. He also enjoys running, proudly completing the Great North Run in September 2022. Ian also recently became a grandad, so will now be doubling up with both Minnie and his grandson on a few hill walks!

Gillian joined us in 2021 to lead our team of health and safety professionals who are responsible delivering a range of services to our clients. She makes it her priority to get to know our clients well, in order to support them in the best way possible.

Naturally curious, Gillian has a keen eye for detail and strongly believes that softer skills, such as coaching and mentoring, get the best results in implementing a positive safety culture. Her goal is to give our clients full confidence, understanding and autonomy over their company’s health and safety procedures and policies. She firmly believes that a positive safety culture can be achieved in any environment, regardless of size or complexity.

Gillian also delivers bespoke leadership training for executives and senior managers, helping them to understand their individual accountabilities. She believes that tailoring each session with relevant content is vital to achieving excellent engagement and positive impact.

Most prominently, Gillian was instrumental in driving health and safety cultural change at Liverpool Football Club, resulting in winning British Safety Council International Safety Award for Health, Safety & Wellbeing in 2019.

Gillian is a lover of animals, plants and flowers, so when she’s not working, she spends as much time as she can in the garden or walking her dog, Henry. She’s always on the lookout for rare houseplants to add to her collection too!

Michael became a member of our team in 2023 having previously worked at another consultancy business. Aside from the increased salary potential, the attraction to join Vita Safety was the opportunity to work with a smaller team, to contribute to growing the business and develop his professional skills at the same time.

Michael loves meeting new people. He relishes the opportunity to build solid relationships with clients and is always confident in developing their health and safety procedures and performance by working together with them to improve.

When he’s not working, Michael likes nothing more than making the most of family time – walking the family dog, watching or playing football with his son. If he’s not with the family, he’s usually got his head in a good book or binging a boxset!

Jane joined the team in 2020, following a 30-year career in Financial Services IT. She was attracted to a job at Vita Safety as it provided an opportunity to put her wealth of skills and experience into action, in a role that offered the work-life balance that she was looking for.

Jane is proactive, results-driven and has a keen eye for detail. Holding a Business Studies degree, she is skilfully adept at improving processes and best practices in fast-paced, changing environments.

Jane relishes spending time with family and friends, taking advantage of some of the great places to socialise in Cheshire, and going for long, peaceful walks in the countryside. When she’s not sampling the best the Northwest has to offer, she’s a keen traveller– next stop: Mauritius.

Khurram joined the Vita Safety team in 2023, keen to become part of our growing company and work with our fantastic clients. He brings a range of specialist experience and expertise to the role, including asbestos surveying, legionella risk management and fire risk assessments. His clients are truly safe in the knowledge that they have an expert on the case. Khurram has also worked across a range of sectors but has particular experience in property management services.

Taking great pride in his work, Khurram believes that a strong sense of integrity is essential to the work he does. For him, it’s personal. He believes in providing the best service possible to his clients, which means he can deliver the most positive impact on an organisation’s health and safety culture and in turn their overall performance.

Outside of work – Khurram is a big sports fan. Watching or playing, working out at the gym or going for walks, he likes to keep active as much as possible. At the end of a long day, he loves nothing more than spending some quality downtime together with the family.

After many years working in a high-performance, high pressure work environment, Lee needed to realign his work/life balance to make sure he could keep doing what he does best. Vita Safety gave him the opportunity to focus on what he loves and values about our industry: helping people to stay healthy, happy and safe and always doing things right by them.

Lee believes the most important elements to his role are the ability to listen to a client, to empathise with them and then process the information effectively and quickly into solutions that work. It enables him to give clients the reassurance they need, without the fear of having to decipher all the ‘red tape’.

To relax, Lee loves cooking, playtime and being silly with his little girl and enjoying a good day out (however big or small). As well as activity and interaction, he also relishes a bit of quiet time to contemplate, relax and reflect on the day and find some answers to the burning questions that run through his head!