James began his career in fire safety in 1990 as a test engineer at the London facility of Warrington Fire Research Centre (as it was then). After graduating with a BEng (Hons) degree in Fire Safety Engineering he moved into fire consultancy with Arup Fire in 1996 producing fire strategies on a wide spectrum of buildings including the iconic Sage music venue in Gateshead, now one of the venues for the X Factor auditions.
In 2000 he broadened his fire consultancy experience with Tenos, before accepting an Associate Director position with SAFE fire consultants, part of the Whitby Bird group and now Rambol Fire. In May 2008 James was invited by Hilson Moran to expand their existing fire system design skill base to include fire consultancy and fire engineering as their Principal Fire Consultant.
James joined BB7 as Head of Fire Safety Engineering in 2014 and is responsible for the consultancy services within the Fire Engineering group.
He has participated in BSI review panels for BS9999, BS9991 and parts of the BS7974 suite of standards. As well as contributing to the MHCLG review group for the clarified version of Approved Document B.
James has been a member of the IFE Registrants Group for a couple of years, reviewing and interviewing prospective CEng registrants and is proud to be accepted as the IFERG Board Director.