Judging Panel

Paul has previously held senior posts at the Engineering Employers' Federation (EEF) and the Chemical Industries Association.
He was also a non-executive director of BVQI UK and, more recently, a Director of Retrofitworks. He is currently on the advisory board of certification body BM Trada Exova.
Paul is a chartered Fellow of both the Institute of Environmental Management and the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health.

Mark has over 21 years’ experience of delivering marketing and communications across a range of diverse industries - insurance, medical software, higher education and construction.
He holds Postgraduate Diplomas with the Chartered Institute of Marketing, the Institute of Direct and Digital Marketing and the Chartered Institute of Public Relations.
He joined NICEIC in 2009 and was promoted to Marketing Director of Certsure in 2015. His achievements include launching the award-winning Live conference and exhibition (2011), co-ordinating marketing communications for the formation of Certsure (2013) and launching the company’s first ever TV and online commercial (2016).

Phil Buckle was appointed Chief Executive of the Electrical Safety Council – now known as Electrical Safety First - in May 2009.  Prior to this, he served as its Director of Charitable Affairs from 2007.
Phil has had a distinguished career in the electrical installation industry holding a number of senior posts including Head of Technical Services at the Electrical Contractors’ Association and Director of Marketing and Business Development at the NICEIC Group.
During his tenure at Electrical Safety First, Phil has overseen an increase in the Charity’s public and political profile - and ensured that campaigns and technical guidance are underpinned by research and ethical principles. He has also driven the strategy on developing the Charity’s expertise in the field of electrical product safety, particularly in the areas of recalls and traceability.
Phil holds a Master of Science degree, with distinction, in Management in the Voluntary Sector and is a Fellow of the IET.

Tessa is an experienced general management professional with an extensive track record in leading business growth, Tessa joined the Electrical Industries Charity as their Managing Director from Parsons Brinckerhoff (a Balfour Beatty company) where she held the position of National General Manager for Oil & Gas.  She has an extensive track record leading business growth and change initiatives for a multidisciplinary engineering and construction business focusing on the energy and resources industry.

Andrew has been involved in the international network infrastructure and data centre industries for the past 27 years.  He joined CNet Training in 1997 as Sales Director and has been CEO since 2004.  Andrew has always been an active member of numerous industry trade bodies. He created the global network infrastructure and data centre education framework and has been instrumental in the development of the only truly mapped qualifications and certifications for these sectors.  He has also been awarded a number of industry accolades for his work.

Matt Nimmons is Managing Director of CEDIA EMEA, the leading association for the residential home technology industry. Matt’s role is to oversee the operations and implementation of the association’s strategy, whilst defining the programmes and activities to reflect these strategies. Joining CEDIA over 12 years ago, Matt previously held positions in the Operations team, where he was responsible for organising, managing, and marketing key events in the industry’s calendar, including the CEDIA Home Technology Event and the CEDIA Awards. Before joining CEDIA, Matt held marketing roles at British loudspeaker manufacturer, Mission, and The Acushnet Company, one of the largest manufacturers of golf equipment in the world.

Margaret Fitzsimons has been Director of the Electrical Distributors’ Association (EDA) for 3 years and before that was MD of Voltimum UK which she set up and ran for 14 years.  Both of these positions have given her special insight into the workings of the electrical industry supply chain including organisations and how they interact, technologies, cultures, roles, personalities, opportunities and threats. She believes she is lucky to work in such a people-orientated sector.  While Margaret has been in general management in the UK for many years, she is at heart a marketer with a love of all things ‘foreign’ having lived  in US & Europe for several years either working for global companies or studying. 

Jon Graham joined JTL as its Chief Executive in March 2015. Previously he had a number of high profile roles in professional and vocational training, joining JTL from his previous role as Managing Director of the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA). Prior to this he was at Kaplan.

After graduating he qualified as a chartered accountant with BDO in London. He was seconded to their training department before joining a professional training organisation which he subsequently purchased with private equity. The business was later sold to Kaplan in 2006.

As well as his professional achievements, Jon has enjoyed significant success in the sporting arena and is currently a qualified FA referee and an ECB cricket coach.

Binyamin Ali is features editor at Construction News. A recent entrant to the construction industry, Binyamin has written on the state of training and apprenticeships, how the sector can stop being the biggest contributor to UK waste, and technology innovations challenging the status quo.

Helen became ECA’s Director of Member Services in September 2014 and is responsible for the Regional Teams, Marketing, Member Services and also the ECS contact and administration centre.  Previously Helen worked for the Construction Skills Certification Scheme (CSCS) where she was Director of Strategy and Communications. Prior to that, she was Director of Client Services at CORGI and Membership Services Director at BTS Ltd.  Her career has also spanned house building, local government, technical publishing and consultancy.

ECA Industry Awards judging panel will be moderated by Helen, but she will not be involved in the judging decisions.