Jon Gorman

Managing Director, Rescue 3 Europe

Jon is the Managing Director of Rescue 3 Europe based in Llangollen, North Wales.

He has spent most of his time working on whitewater rivers as a raft guide, safety kayaker and rescue trainer during the summer months and looking for powder as a telemark skier in the winter, throughout Europe, Africa, America and New Zealand.

He has been involved with Rescue 3 and rescue training since 1995 and is a Rescue 3 Instructor Trainer.

Mike Turnbull

President, Rescue 3 International

Mike is president of both Rescue 3 International and The Rescue Source. Since his purchase of Rescue 3 International in 1990, he has overseen the growth and development of the company into a world leader in rescue training. With its programs and classes being offered in 32 countries around the world Mike enjoys the challenges of developing new markets and classes.

Since the inception of The Rescue Source in 1990 the company has become the “go to store” for the professional rescuer and creating and developing new products has been a passion for Mike.

Laurie Adams

Group Manager, Devon & Somerset FRS

Laurie Adams is the secretary of the Chief Fire Officers Association - Inland Water Technical Group and has represented the South West Region on the group for the last four years. For his day job, he is a Group Manager within Devon and Somerset Fire and Rescue Service with the role of Specialist Rescue Manager.

He has been actively involved in specialist rescue (including water rescue) as a practitioner, training manager and operations manager for over ten years. He continues to work on national and regional projects, including Local Resilience Forum emergency planning for flood response and search and rescue.

Martin Bills

Station Manager, Nottinghamshire FRS

Martin has served for 20 years with Nottinghamshire Fire and Rescue Service. As one on the leading water and flood rescue experts in the UK Fire & Rescue Service he has been seconded to both the Civil Resilience Directorate and more recently the DEFRA Flood Rescue National Enhancement Project.

As well as holding Powerboat and Personal Watercraft instructor qualifications Martin qualified as a Swiftwater Rescue Technician Instructor in 2000 adding an Advanced Instructor Qualification in 2003. He has delivered many courses at all levels throughout the UK to varied client groups. Through this experience and background he was appointed a Rescue 3 Instructor Trainer in 2004, and Advanced Instructor Trainer in 2005.

Michael John Tipton

Professor of Human & Applied Physiology, University of Portsmouth, UK

Educated at the Universities of Keele and London, Professor Tipton joined the University of Surrey in 1986. After 12 years in the Robens Institute and European Institute of Health and Medical Science he moved to the University of Portsmouth in 1999. In addition to his University positions, Professor Tipton was based at the Institute of Naval Medicine (INM) from 1983 to 2004 and was Consultant Head of the Environmental Medicine Unit of the INM from 1996. He has spent nearly 30 years researching and advising in the areas of thermoregulation, environmental and occupational physiology and survival in the sea. He has published over 350 scientific papers, reports, chapters and books in these areas.

In 2002 he published the book “Essential of Sea Survival” co-written with Dr Frank Golden. Professor Tipton is a consultant in survival and thermal medicine to the Royal Air Force and UKSport; he sits on the RNLI’s Medical & Survival Committee, Surf Lifesaving GB’s medical advisory panel and Chairs UKSport’s Research Advisory Group. Professor Tipton is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine.

He provides advice to a range of universities, government departments, industries, medical, search and rescue and media organisations.

Keith Gillespie

Albany Fire Department, Northwest Rescue, USA

Keith works full time as a Apparatus Operator/Paramedic for the Albany Fire Department in Albany Oregon. He has been in the Pacific Northwest since 1979. Keith can be found on his days off kayaking or rafting the Pacific Northwest Rivers. He has over 20 years experience in diving, river rescue, Emergency Medical Services, Firefighting, Hazardous Materials, Technical Rescue, Search and Rescue, and Whitewater Boating.

He is committed to safety using progressive techniques and equipment while maintaining the high standards recognized in the rescue industry. Keith has travelled throughout most of the United States and even a few parts of the World teaching.

Northwest Rescue has been operating since 1997. Since then a number of agencies and organizations have been taught including the US ARMY, AIR FORCE, USCG, DEQ, EPA, Fire Departments, White water rafting companies, Volunteer Organizations, Corp of Engineers, Telecommunication Tower Companies, Department of Fish and Wildlife, and Police.

Rodney Sebregts

Rescue 3 Benelux

Rodney Sebregts started his professional career as an outdoor instructor, teaching outdoor activities as whitewater kayaking, rafting, canyoning, caving and climbing. After several years of teaching in the outdoors his background as a beach lifeguard became of use when teaching rescuetechniques in the outdoors. Qualified as a teacher he started running his own business in the outdoor industry in 2000. More and more questions started to come about the possibility to train the industry in water and rope rescue. In the meantime rope access work started picking up too.

These days Rodney is running the company Rescue 3 Benelux. Rodney is acting as an advanced instructor trainer for rescue 3 International and is taking part in the development of curriculum for Rescue 3 International.

Rescue 3 Benelux focusses on several disciplines, namely teaching safety and rescue classes in water, rope and confined space. Other parts of the company Rodney is taking part in is in the delevery of rescue equipment, offering consultancy and taking care of an operational Rescue team for standby rescues.

Battalion Chief Tim Rogers

Charlotte Fire Department, USA

Battalion Chief Tim Rogers is a 27 year veteran of the Charlotte Fire Department currently assigned to Battalion 5 of the Operations Division. During the course of his career, Chief Rogers was assigned as a company officer for rescue and haz-mat units and spent three years as the Technical Rescue Training Coordinator while assigned to the CFD Training Division. He possesses a degree in Fire Protection Technology from Central Piedmont Community College and has continued to further his education while completing various courses at and through the National Fire Academy and the Emergency Management Institute.

Chief Rogers is also an Instructor-Trainer for Rescue 3 International; coordinator of his department’s flood response and notification program; and serves as founding member as well as the training coordinator for the North Carolina Emergency Management’s Helicopter Aquatic Rescue Team (NC-HART) and the swift water boat operations programs. In 1998, and in recognition of his program development and response efforts, Chief Rogers was awarded the Higgins and Langley Memorial for Outstanding Achievement in Swiftwater Rescue. He went on to receive a second Higgins and Langley Memorial Award in 2002 for an incident that involved the rescue of two teens whom caught in swift water in Charlotte, a third Memorial Award in 2005 for his response as a NC-HART member while deployed during Hurricanes Frances and Ivan in North Carolina, and a fourth award for his work with the United Kingdom Chief Fire Officer’s Association.

From 1997 to 2000, Chief Rogers was a founding member and chairperson of North Carolina Emergency Management’s Technical Rescue Task Force that identified and developed team typing models and resources for disaster response. He has also been a deployment team leader during significant flood/disaster events in North Carolina, including Hurricane Floyd and Hurricane Isabel; was an Operations Manager during significant floods that affected Charlotte in 1995, 1997, 2007, 2008, and 2009; and was the team leader for helicopter rescue technicians during Hurricanes Charley, Frances, Ivan, Ophelia, and Hanna.

Chief Rogers currently serves as a member of the DHS/FEMA Search and Rescue Credentialing Committee where he is the chair of the Flood/Swift Water, Helicopter and Boat Operations Sub-Committee. As well, he has served as a subject matter expert for the FEMA USAR Operations Group and serves as a member of the UL-STP for personal floatation devices. He also served as the past chairperson for the National Association for Search and Rescue’s (NASAR) Flood-Swift Water Rescue Committee, and is a former member of the Board of Directors for the Higgins and Langley Memorial Awards Foundation.

For the last four years, Tim has been a presenter at various seminars in the United Kingdom and Canada delivering lectures and training programs on flood/swift water planning, response, and team development. These included the Water Safe Conference in the UK on behalf of Rescue 3 (UK), the IJOCC in Toronto on behalf of Fire Magazine, and finally the UK New Dimensions Conference at the House of Commons and the House of Lords on behalf of the United Kingdom Chief Fire Officer’s Association. As well, Tim is a faculty member of North Carolina Emergency Management’s five day Managing Flood Emergencies program for emergency management personnel and emergency services responders. Tim has recently become a board member for the newly formed Helicopter Rescue and Response Association.

Tim is married to his beloved Jonnie, a high school career development coordinator, and they share the joy of raising their daughter Brooke.

Paul O’Sullivan

Managing Director, Rescue 3 (UK)

Paul is the Managing Director of Rescue 3 (UK) based at the National Whitewater Centre near Bala.

Paul has extensive International experience working on whitewater rivers as a raft guide, kayak coach and rescue trainer and as an expedition kayaker.

Whilst working at Rescue 3 (UK) Paul has led the development of a number of new training programmes including the Rescues from Vehicles in Water and Management of Water and Flood Incidents courses, as well as implementing the partnership and validation link between Rescue 3 and the University of Central lancashire.

In 2008 Paul was awarded the Higgins and langley memorial Award for Outstandiing Achievment in Swiftwater Rescue for his involvement in the UK CFOA’s Management of Major Flood Event Research Project.

Simon White

Head of Adventurous Activities, Tees Active Ltd

Simon’s career began abroad teaching sailing, canoeing and yachting for Sunsail UK, and progressed through the ranks to manage various centres abroad.

As the Head of Adventurous Activities for Tees Active Ltd, Simon is responsible for all areas of development of the newly re-designed Teesside International White Water Centre which is striving to become a centre of excellence for technical rescue training.

Simon is an RYA Senior Instructor and Powerboat Trainer.

Keith Hampton

Leicestershire Fire & Rescue

Keith has been with Leicestershire Fire & Rescue Service for 31 years. He is a manager for the Technical Rescue team (Rope, Water, USAR, RTC, Confined space and Animal rescue) disciplines in which Keith is an instructor as well as manager.

He has been a Rescue 3 UK instructor for 16 years being one of the first batch of instructors at its inception in the UK. As well as SRT and Swift water rescue boat classes, Keith has assisted in the delivery of the Flood management course.

He has been involved in white water safety and rescue for paddlers and rafters for 25 years through the British Canoe Union attending WWSR conferences around Europe and the US.

He has been deployed around the world in a search and rescue role for the UK Fire Services SAR team (UKFSSART) both as a team member with 14 years experience as a dog handler, but also as team leader for UKFSSART. Deployments include Turkey, India, Algeria as well as large incidents in the UK.

In the flood world he has been deployed to Africa India and the largest by far being to South East Asia for the Tsunami in Thailand, There he led a large team of SAR team members, dog teams and also the Thai military. In recent years the UK has suffered some of the biggest floods they have ever seen and Keith was involved directly in search and rescue work and also in the boat command centre.

Nigel Garrett

Division Leader, University of Central Lancashire

Nigel Garrett is the Division Leader for The Outdoors at UCLAN.

His responsibility for student-learning prompted the development of a number of effective collaborations for the accreditation of courses between the HEI and external sporting bodies and organisations (including Rescue 3 (UK)). As a Level 5 Kayak Coach, Nigel has worked closely with the British Canoe Union and Canoe Wales in developing their Coach Education provision, directing courses and assessing potential coaches at all levels of involvement.

He is also involved in a coaching consultancy role with The Rugby Football League English Basketball, England Table Tennis, Squash, and Badminton England.

Vicky Barlow

Lecturer, University of Central Lancashire

Vicky Barlow is a lecturer at the University of Central Lancashire (UCLan) and a Rescue 3 SRT Instructor. She is Course Leader for the Rescue 3 (UK)-UCLan University Award programme and developed the Foundation Degree in Technical Rescue Instruction.

Vicky’s background is in white water kayaking and she is a British Canoe Union Level 4 Coach and has completed first descents of the Siang and Lohit rivers in India.

John Seymour

National Manager, Special Operations, AA Road Operations

John Seymour established the AA’s Special Operations Response Team from scratch in 2008 and has on-going development and operational responsibility. He has been with the AA since 1988, and has held a variety of positions within both AA Insurance and AA Road Operations.

His background is broadly in project management, but with a clear operational focus. His work in building the AA’s Special Operations function has enabled the AA to extend its capabilities into the disaster response arena by providing a vehicle recovery capability in floods and snow. The team (Rescue 3 trained) was active for a full week during the Cumbria floods of 2009, and since then has seen operational duty almost every month somewhere in the country.

John is a fully certified Water Rescue Technician and is a hands-on operational team member as well as its manager.

Jason Finch

RSPCA

Jason has been an RSPCA Inspector for the last 11 years and is based in Bury St. Edmunds in Suffolk. He is a Rescue 3 Europe Swiftwater Rescue Technician, and has been part of the RSPCA Water Rescue Team for 5 years and National Water Rescue Coordinator for 3 years.

Jason is also Large Animal Rescue trained and has run the RSPCA’s response at incidents such as Gloucester in 2007 and Cumbria in 2009.

Vernon Smith

Spartan Rescue

Vernon has 25 years experience of working in the outdoor and safety arena. Highly qualified across a range of disciplines including mountaineering, kayaking, yachting, power boating and swift water rescue. Vernon’s career has included a spell teaching, running a large outdoor centre and he is now the Director of Operations for Spartan UKOS, a specialist contractor working with the emergency services for operational support, particularly for water incidents and specialist training.

Safety Standby – a partner brand to Spartan UKOS works within industry for water safety cover, working at heights and confined space protection.

Vernon has extensive coaching and training experience across a number of technical disciplines combined with extensive operational experience.

A keen power boater, Vernon has circumnavigated the UK in a 5 meter RIB and has several other long distance open water crossings to his name. Safety Standby and Spartan UKOS have vast experience in the deployment and use of powered watercraft for inland watercourse searching, rescue and safety cover.

Vernon also works in support of Rescue 3 as an established Instructor / Trainer.

Chris Onions

Chris is the Higher Education co-ordinator for Rescue 3 (UK) and also helps with the delivery of the rope rescue technician and searching rivers and floods modules.

Chris has a background within mountain rescue, and has held the positions of Regional Training Officer for the North Wales Mountain Rescue Association (NWMRA) and a Team Leader for the Ogwen Valley Mountain Rescue Organisation.

His main interests lie within technical rescue and search management, and he is recently appointed the Regional Water Officer engaged with assisting mountain rescue teams enhance their water rescue capability.

Colonel Paul Barbee

US Army Aviation, USA

Colonel Paul Barbee is a 27 year veteran of US Army Aviation, culminating in his service as Theater Aviation Brigade Commander (Operation Iraqi Freedom) responsible for the command and control of 129 Helicopters with an assigned operational response area covering over 80,000 square miles. During the course of his career; Colonel Barbee has commanded at every level within Army Aviation. He has earned 26 individual military awards including Meritorious Unit Commendation, two Bronze Stars, and Air Medal as a commander and pilot in a combat zone. He possesses both a Bachelor of Science Degree and Masters Degree in Aeronautics from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University with dual specializations in Aviation Management and Safety. Colonel Barbee also a graduate of the United States Army War College Masters Degree program in Strategic Studies.

As well, he is an Army Master Aviator and Standardization Instructor pilot with over 6500 flight hours and holds FFA ratings as Airline Transport Pilot, Civilian Rotary Wing Flight Instructor and Instrument Instructor, Commercial and Instrument Rotary Wing rating. He is rated military instructor pilot in both UH-60 Blackhawk and AH-64 Apache helicopters and is a military rated maintenance test pilot in multiple aircraft.

Colonel Barbee is one of three founding members responsible for the development of the North Carolina Helicopter Aquatic Rescue Team (NC-HART). He has completed over 150 live rescues during numerous hurricanes and inland flooding events as pilot in command from 1993-2003. He received the Higgins and Langley Memorial Award in 2004 for his response as a NC-HART member while deployed during Hurricanes Frances and Ivan.

He received the Sikorsky Rescue Award as pilot in command of UH-60 Blackhawk helicopter during a night vision goggle rescue hoist mission 600 feet down from the top of the rock face on Shortoff Mountain that resulted in the rescue of four climbers.