Our People

Chief Operating Officer

Dr Andy Beale MSc, FSyI, FCMI, GIFireE

Andy joined Wavetrain Group in 2022 having started his career in the Royal Navy as a marine engineer. After which he became a full-time professional fire officer in the UK.  Andy has been a crisis and response consultant for ten years working independently, and with security companies such as, Constellis, Olive Group, GardaWorld & Crisis24 on protective security improvement activities, business continuity management, organisational resilience and crisis response projects.  He held high-level security clearance and has multi-agency Gold Command management experience of extraordinary incidents including terrorism, civil disorder and major flooding in the UK; he was Cabinet Office Briefing Room (COBR A) trained. It is because of his uniformed strategic command roles that Andy has significant experience of UK national and local government emergency and security responses.

He also has broad experience of industry and commercial sector emergency planning, terrorism response, crisis management, environmental response, and hazardous material spill, including nuclear, chemical, biological, radiological and explosives (CBRN[e]) incidents. Andy has extensive experience in disaster and crisis management having been deployed to major overseas incidents including in war zones as a team leader with international disaster response teams for DFID & the UN. He regularly provides advice on strategic planning and decision-making processes to C Suite and company Boards.  He is a Port Facilities, Company & Ship Security officer, a BSI qualified Lead Auditor for Business Continuity, an ENTO Internal Verifier and an IOSH qualified health and safety manager.  

He is the Highly Commended Award winner of the International Emerald/EFMD Outstanding Doctoral Research Awards, a graduate of the Civil Service Top Managers Programme and is a Fellow of the Security Institute, Fellow of the Chartered Management Institute and is a Freeman of the Worshipful Company of Security Professionals and a Freeman of the City of London.

Technical Advisor

Professor Paul Christensen

Paul is Wavetrain's technical advisor and our lead course content creator for our lithium-ion battery courses. He was the first scientist to raise the critical importance of vapour cloud production from lithium-ion batteries in thermal runaway.  Paul has consulted with and advised industry leaders and politicians on aspects of lithium-ion battery design, construction, disposal and safety.  His research team was the first to link vapour cloud explosions to lithium-ion battery energy storage systems.  He has Over 200 papers in international, and peer reviewed journals.

Paul was commissioned by UK Office for Product and Safety Standards & BEIS to research the Safety of Second Life Batteries in Domestic Battery Energy Storage Systems (report to be published end 2022).  He also advised Nissan on all aspects of lithium-ion battery safety during the construction of their battery plant. He provided advice to Nissan in Milton Keynes re EV post-crash safety. Has assessed planning applications for grid-scale lithium-ion battery energy storage systems in the UK and abroad on the basis of safety systems, access, emergency response plans.

Paul is Senior Advisor to the National Fire Chiefs Council (NFCC), a Special Advisor to Tyne and Wear Fire and Rescue Service (FRS), Advisor to the Faraday Battery Challenge on lithium-ion safety and Guest instructor at the UK Fire Services College Moreton-in-Marsh.

Paul regularly conducts lithium-ion battery speaking tours around the word. He offers informal advice and assistance to many fire & rescue, police and specialist responder organisations.  He assists with operational guidance preparation and the production of training materials for emergency first responders. He manages a network of over 120 members that reaches all UK, Australian and New Zealand FRS, as well as UK Government departments/ministries, IFV Netherlands and INERIS in France, in order to exchange experience, information and advice on all aspects of lithium-ion battery fire safety. He works with other universities and organisations to conduct research into thermal runaway and ignition of electric vehicle modules, also car battery design and disposal.

Paul also provides his expertise to the following groups: 

• Cross-government Technical Steering Group for EV fire safety
• BEIS Energy Storage Health and Safety Governance Group.
• BEIS Storage Safety - Fire Service Working Group.
• PAS 63100 (domestic energy storage systems) Steering Group.
• Australian Building Codes Board working group on EV safety.
• Tyne & Wear FRS and Envision-AESC Gigafactory fire safety working group.
• London Fire Brigade Stored Energy & Zero Emission Pump Appliance Working Groups.
• Special Interest Group of the Fire Industry Association.
• UK FRS National Operational Learning User Group.
• Derbyshire Police Electric Vehicle Safety Working Group.
• Highways England

 Senior Consultant & Trainer

Murdo Mackenzie

Murdo is a trainer on MCA approved STCW courses, a lead auditor for ISO 9001 Quality Management Systems and is a medical first responder. His consultancy skills are based on his academic management and leadership training. He is an experienced former Royal Marine Sergeant Major in the UK Amphibious Forces who has operated coastal craft independently, as well as part of international teams in the Arctic, the tropics, and as far south as the sub-Antarctica.  On leaving the military he was trained on the newly introduced International Ship and Port Security Code. 

He has several years' experience working with the press before he made a welcome return to the maritime sector.  Working on a variety of vessels with multinational crews he managed security on a number of seismic surveys with multiple vessels, wrote maritime security plans for strategic energy facilities as well as port facilities, audited training in Central America for the Organisation of American States and has collaborated with preparing and presenting search and rescue projects. He also led maritime security teams and has worked on modern drill ships and platforms in the energy sector. His work has taken him to almost all of the Middle Eastern countries; he has worked in the Far East, East and West Africa, and the Caribbean. He spent time advising senior management of KPI-COSTAIN on a complicated assignment in Northern Iraq (Kurdistan).  Running confidence building sessions with senior individuals in hostile environments.  He has also worked with various media companies. As a Safety and Security Advisor [SSA] for APTN, NBC, Reuters, New York Times he was responsible for risk assessment of countrywide news gathering operations.  Also he worked as a SSA for TV production in Spain for UK based production companies.  Murdo was a Lead Evaluator for an Organisation of American States Project to increase port security capacity and capability in Central America and a shore side representative of an offshore UXO project for the Iraqi oil industry in Kuwait.

All of these skills and experiences combined make Murdo a very sought after trainer and Wavetrain is pleased to have him onboard.

Fire & Rescue Advisor

Tony McGuirk CBE, QFSM, MSc. F.I Fire.E.

Tony is Wavetrain's Fire & Rescue advisor and a course content creator for our lithium-ion battery courses.  He has over 45 years' experience in the emergency/environmental response services. He became a firefighter and rose through the operational ranks to become Chief Executive and Chief Fire Officer of Merseyside Fire & Rescue Service for over 10 years.  He is a provider of strong operational leadership at a wide range of major and complex incidents at local, national, and international level. He has a strong network in the emergency services of USA (NFPA), Canada, UAE, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand.  At a strategic level he introduced a radical change in the service from a response culture to a prevention culture, and these ideas and innovation have been adopted nationally and internationally. 

In the NFPA document “Doing more with more” he is recognised as being a Community Risk Reduction visionary.  In recognition of exemplary service, was awarded the Queens Fire Service Medal (QFSM) and made a Commander of the British Empire (CBE).  After 36 years operational service, he retired from the front line in 2012, and established his consultancy business, advising organisations/ businesses on crisis leadership, and emergency/disaster response.  He is a Fellow of the Institution of Fire Engineers, a Fellow of the International Institute of Risk and Safety Management, a graduate of the Harvard Business School (HBS), a graduate of the Civil Service Top Managers Programme, and he has a Master of Science Degree (MSc) in Human Resource Business Management.

His background has given him a unique perspective on the impact of climate change on emergency response.  He has developed innovative firefighting approaches to:

• Electric Vehicle fires (fire blankets)
• The use of drones in firefighting.
• PV solar safety
• Role of mists/fog systems in infection control(pandemics).

Over the past 3 years, from both an emergency and environmental perspective, Tony has developed a keen interest in incidents caused by new energy technologies, including lithium-ion battery systems. His work has focused on understanding the phenomena of thermal runaway and the strategic impact of this phenomena on emergency/incident planning/response, developing awareness and training for first and second responders (including corporate leadership), and developing new technologies to deal with lithium in incidents in remote locations.

 Power Engineering Advisor

Paul Markham, C.Eng, B.Eng.

Paul is Wavetrain's power engineering advisor and a course content creator for our lithium-ion battery courses. He has been working in the power industry for 36 years.  Paul is a chartered mechanical engineer.  He has worked across operations and maintenance, construction, servicing and risk engineering. Paul has maintained a detailed incident database, which allows lessons to be learnt.

He has conducted risk engineering surveys in the power generation industry worldwide, including BESS, coal, hydro, geothermal, solar, wind and combined cycle gas turbine facilities over the past 20 years.  During his period of involvement in risk assessment/due diligence, he has conducted work globally in USA, UAE, Qatar, Kuwait, Russia, Botswana, Mozambique, South Africa, Colombia, Ecuador, Bolivia, Venezuela, Zambia, Bangladesh, UK, Spain, Greece, Iceland, Turkey, China, KSA and Italy.

In the past 4 years Paul has created risk assessment criteria for BESS and worked with EPRI and their BESS Hazard Mitigation Assessment tool.  This has required a deep understanding for lithium-ion batteries and their management systems, which cover EV and other epropulsion.  He works for an EV warranty insurance product completing manufacturing/product risk assessment and closely with Paul Christen and Tony McGuirk across a number of battery arenas.

Prior to joining risk assessment he worked for Siemens for 8 years commissioning gas turbines, managing major outages and operating a power station for 18 months in Pakistan, achieving over 98% availability. The latter also had a period as plant manager.

Extensive technical knowledge was gained with 8 years in the Royal Navy.  Roles included head of department on a sea going warship, 2 years in a gas turbine test and evaluation post and his final 2 years as a leadership training manager for young Naval apprentices.  Prior to joining the Royal Navy he spent 4 years working for British Steel, starting as an apprentice and obtaining a Bachelor of Engineering degree at the University of Bradford.  Paul has also studied at the University of Warwick for the business administration competency and studied accounting management whilst in the Royal Navy.