Fire Engineering

As Project Director of our Seattle office, Keryn brings expertise in leading performance-based designs and cultivating strong working relationships. She provides fire and life safety solutions that meet her client’s goals for a wide range of building types—including high-rises, open office buildings, major retail developments, and adaptive reuse projects. Throughout her tenure at Holmes (in both Auckland and Seattle), Keryn has applied her knowledge of the balancing act of smoke modeling and egress design for complex, award-winning buildings. She also mentors budding fire engineers and introduces undergraduate students to the possibilities of a career in fire engineering. Her dedication to the profession earned her the President’s Award, the highest accolade granted by the Society of Fire Protection Engineers in New Zealand. When she’s not running simulations, Keryn can be found running long distances on mountain trails.

Stuart has a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering and a Master of Fire Engineering from the University of Canterbury, New Zealand. He has been with Holmes Fire for more than ten years and in that time has gained developed many building fire safety designs. His strength stems from ensuring the fire design is implemented accurately from concept through to commissioning.

Stuart is a proficient fire engineer with a wide range of project experience including large public projects, commercial developments, retail and healthcare projects. He is very committed to ensuring that the fire engineering designs proposed are the most effective and innovative to ensure that they support the design team’s intentions for the project.

As International CEO of Holmes Fire, Stuart works across the business to maximise the collaboration opportunities across our offices and wider subsidiaries, ensuring our specialist skills can be applied to enhance our project outcomes and delivery. Additionally, Stuart also works to grow the Holmes Fire business, seeking further opportunities beyond our current operation, such as geographic expansion and additional service offerings.

Stuart is a Chartered Professional Engineer (CPEng) and Member Engineers New Zealand.

Mike attended the University of Canterbury, New Zealand, where he completed a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering, specialising in the areas hydraulics and structural design, before going on to complete master’s degree in fire engineering.

As part of the master’s course he completed a research report assessing the performance of modern concretes at elevated temperature. This included furnace testing panels of light weight aggregate and high strength (>180 MPa) concrete variants at the BRANZ fire testing laboratory.

Mike has been providing fire engineering design, including smoke control and egress modelling for over 18 years. He has experience in large crowd (>30,000 people) pedestrian movement modelling for stadia and events, significant education and research buildings and industrial or special risk projects. Mike also has been involved as the senior design engineer in many large projects, both in New Zealand and the United Kingdom. He also has significant experience working remotely, utilising web conferencing and internet based tools to communicate effectively with the client and design teams across the globe.

Mike is a Chartered Professional Engineer (CPEng) and a Member of the Engineering NZ (CMEngNZ)

Kathryn has a Bachelor of Civil Engineering and a Master of Fire Engineering from the University of Canterbury, New Zealand. She is a skilled fire engineer with over 18 years of experience, having practised as a fire safety engineer in both New Zealand and the United Kingdom.

Kathryn has developed expertise in performance-based fire safety design from exposure to a wide range of building types, for both new and operational buildings. High profile projects that she has been involved with include public assembly and education buildings, hospitals, office buildings, residential and warehouse/storage design. She also has experience with large power stations and fire risk surveys of these buildings.

Kathryn is experienced in developing the fire safety strategies with the design team, as well as undertaking the calculations and modelling to demonstrate that the design satisfies the necessary requirements.

Kathryn is a Chartered Professional Engineer (CPEng), an International Professional Engineer and a Member of the Institution of Professional Engineers New Zealand (IPENZ).

Garth graduating from the University of Canterbury with a master’s in fire engineering following a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering, He has worked on projects both around New Zealand as well as major projects in Southeast Asia and Australia. Garth excels working within a collaborative design team and values how fire engineering can mesh with other disciplines to create elegant, appealing solutions to design problems.

Garth’s broad experience includes new builds and refurbishments of existing buildings and his understanding and appreciation of risk management provides innovative solutions to challenges presented by existing constraints, or new unconventional architectural features. His project experience includes large public gathering venues, healthcare, commercial developments and apartment complexes.

Garth is a Chartered Professional Engineer (CPEng) and Member of Engineering New Zealand (ENZ).

Sarnia has a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering and a Master of Fire Engineering from the University of Canterbury, New Zealand.

Sarnia has been involved in assembly, commercial, industrial, storage, health care, residential, utilities and services, retail, and heritage projects, providing fire engineering alternative solutions, BCA assessments and, fire safety upgrades to provide innovative and cost effective solutions for fire safety.

Sarnia has significant experience in the use of zone and Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) fire models as well as with egress assessment methods and models and is able to use these fire engineering tools to investigate fire and occupant behaviour.

Sarnia is a Fellow of the institution of Engineers Australia, she is also a Chartered Professional Engineer (CPEng), a Registered Engineer on the National Professional Engineers Register (NER) in Fire Safety, and is registered by Engineers Australia as an APEC Engineer in Australia. Additionally Sarnia is on the Society of Fire’s National Committee and the NSW committee, she is a Registered Professional Engineer (Fire Engineering) of Queensland (RPEQ) and a Registered Building Practitioner (Engineer / Fire Safety) with the Building Practitioners Board of Victoria.

Greg has a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering and a master’s in fire engineering from the University of Canterbury, New Zealand.

Greg has over 20 years of experience including projects involving new and existing buildings on green field and existing sites and is a Principal of Holmes Fire. Greg is completed performance-based fire safety designs in buildings as diverse as power plants, schools, hospitals, prisons, stadia, shopping malls, conference centres and commercial developments. Greg maintains a focus on safety and efficiency in design from the initial design advice through to completion, negotiating the sometimes complex approvals process and involving all stakeholders in the progression of the project.

Greg is a Chartered Professional Engineer (CPEng) and a Member of the Institution of Professional Engineers New Zealand (IPENZ), and a Member of the Society of Fire Protection Engineers (SFPE).

Jeremy has a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering, a master’s degree in Fire Engineering, and a PhD in Fire Engineering from the University of Canterbury, New Zealand.

Jeremy is specialised in structural fire engineering. He has taught this topic at the University of Canterbury for several years and contributed to the New Zealand and international design guides. Jeremy has developed expertise in assessing and designing the structural behaviour in fire of concrete, steel, and timber constructions.

Jeremy also has in-depth knowledge of the building regulations in New Zealand. He has been working for several building consent authorities to review the fire safety aspect of the building consent applications and to develop the fire related council policies. Jeremy has clear understanding of the requirements from the Building Act and the building consent review process, and he can provide advice and assistance on means to meet the regulatory requirements.

Jeremy is a Chartered Professional Engineer (CPEng), an International Professional Engineer, and a Chartered Member of Engineering New Zealand.

Erik started studying towards his Bachelor of Science in Fire Protection Engineering at the Department of Fire Safety Engineering and Systems Safety, Lund University, Sweden in 2008. In 2011 Erik joined Holmes Fire in Sydney as a Student Fire Engineer, whilst undertaking his thesis research.

Erik has had the opportunity to work for Holmes Fire in Australia, New Zealand and San Francisco. His global experience has resulted in an extensive technical knowledge base and an in-depth understanding of international aspects of building codes, legislative requirements, and approval processes.

Erik’s project experience includes code compliance assessments, site evaluations, and performance-based alternative designs on shopping centres, industrial, residential, and mixed-use spaces, as well as places of public assembly. Erik specialises in Computational Fluid Dynamics fire models, used to understand potential fire behaviour and to predict the movement of smoke within a wide variety of buildings and structures.

Erik is accredited as a Chartered Member of Engineers Australia (CPEng) and a Registered Engineer on the National Professional Engineers Register (NPER) in Fire Safety. Additionally Erik is a C10 Accredited Certifier (Fire Safety Engineering Compliance) in NSW, a Registered Professional Engineer (Fire Engineering) of Queensland (RPEQ) and a Registered Building Practitioner (Engineer / Fire Safety) with the Building Practitioners Board of Victoria.

Geza has a Master of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Budapest University of Technology and Economics, Hungary.

Geza has nearly 20 years of experience in the field of fire protection and performance-based code compliance for complex projects. He brings extensive experience in designing and installing automatic fire sprinkler, standpipe and fire pump systems. Geza focuses his contribution on performance-based code application in support of unique building designs and on designing economical and sustainable integrated smoke control and egress systems that meet Client aspirations. Many of his projects have involved special issues such as atria, very tall buildings and large assembly spaces.

Geza is a registered Professional Engineer (P.E.) in Fire Protection Engineering in the State of California and Nevada, and member of the Society of Fire Protection Engineers (SFPE).

Bevan has a bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering and a Master of Fire Engineering from the University of Canterbury, New Zealand.

Bevan has over 20 years of experience providing performance-based fire engineering and code consulting Internationally. Since 2006 Bevan has been based in San Francisco, with a focus on performance-based design solutions for a vast range of US and international projects. As the construction industry evolves to support sustainable building design, innovative building materials and project objectives that push the boundaries of prescriptive constraints, Bevan’s expertise adds significant value through the creation of alternate design strategies to augment new thinking.

Bevan is a registered Professional Engineer (P.E.) in Fire Protection Engineering in the State of California and member of the Society of Fire Protection Engineers (SFPE) and National Fire Protection Association (NFPA).

Darin has a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering and a Master of Fire Engineering from the University of Canterbury, New Zealand.

Darin has more than 20 years of experience in the fire engineering industry working in New Zealand, Australia, United Kingdom and Spain. Darin has been involved in wide ranging projects that have included small commercial refurbishments to large industrial and retail developments applying both the Acceptable Solutions, Verification Method C/VM2 and Alternative Fire Engineering.

Darin is an active leader in developing the profession as a whole in his capacity as Chair of the Fire Advisory Panel for University of Canterbury,an independent advisor to BRANZ Project advisory group, and his contributions to the SFPE Construction Monitoring Practice Note working group.

Darin is a Chartered Professional Engineer (CPEng), an International Professional Engineer and a Member of the Institution of Professional Engineers New Zealand (IPENZ).

Linus has a master’s and a Ph.D. in fire engineering from University of Canterbury, New Zealand, and over 15 years fire engineering experience with projects in Australia, New Zealand, United Kingdom, Europe, US, Middle East and Asia.

Linus’ specialist field of expertise is in the behaviour of concrete, steel and timber structures in fire. Linus has significant consulting experience in developing structural fire engineering strategies and undertaking advanced finite element analysis on buildings and bridges under fire exposure. Linus currently leads a team of structural fire engineers in Holmes Fire.

Linus has provided fire engineering and structural fire engineering designs for a vast number of commercial, retail, heritage, residential and infrastructure projects. Linus also has experience with furnace testing, occupant evacuation and Computational Fluid Dynamics smoke modelling. Linus is a Chartered Member of Engineers Australia (CPEng – Fire Safety & Structural), a member of the Society of Fire Safety, a C10 Accredited Certifier (Fire Safety Engineering Compliance) in NSW and a Registered Professional Engineer of Queensland (RPEQ) and a Registered Building Practitioner (Engineer / Fire Safety) with the Building Practitioners Board of Victoria.

Glen has a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Technology, Sydney and a Master of Applied Science (Fire Safety Design) from the University of Western Sydney. Having applied building code and fire engineering design for over 16 years, Glen provides extensive experience for the Holmes Fire team and our clients. Glen’s has been involved in the application of performance-based fire engineering to residential, commercial, retail, hotel, industrial, assembly, aged care, heritage and infrastructure projects, with these projects located throughout Australia and the Middle East.

As CEO of Holmes Fire Australia, Glen is responsible for the management and leadership of the Australian business, and as a Director also provides leadership and governance to the wider Holmes Fire business (throughout NZ and the US). Glen also maintains a hands-on project role, providing conceptual design, detail design, peer review and construction review.

Glen is a member of Engineers Australia, the Society of Fire Safety and the Society of Fire Protection Engineers (SFPE), a C10 Accredited Certifier (Fire Safety Engineering Compliance) in NSW and a Registered Building Practitioner (Engineer / Fire Safety) with the Building Practitioners Board of Victoria.

Brian has a Bachelor of Science in Fire Protection Engineering and a master’s degree in fire protection engineering from the University of Maryland, USA.

As a fire engineer, Brian provides clear fire engineering strategies to meet project and client goals, while satisfying the demands of the code. He has demonstrated his skill through a wide array of international projects, ranging from large scale residential to dynamic public assembly projects. His modelling analysis helps to preserve architectural and historical integrity, while providing building solutions that afford appropriate levels of occupant safety. These solutions include the available options within the prescriptive code, along with a range of viable alternative options that fit the needs of the project’s economic, environmental and innovative goals. Brian excels in smoke modelling and evacuation analysis, providing clients with effective and efficient solutions.

Brian is a registered Professional Engineer (P.E.) in Fire Protection Engineering in the State of California, Washington and New York and is also a member of the Society of Fire Protection Engineers (SFPE).

Reuben has a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering and a master’s degree in fire engineering from the University of Canterbury, New Zealand.

Reuben has a considerable understanding in the principles of fire dynamics and human behaviour. He has put this knowledge into practice over his seven plus years’ experience delivering projects as a Professional Engineer. He has been involved with a wide variety of projects including major public facilities, accommodation buildings, retail and industrial buildings as well as most things in between.

Ultimately, Reuben uses his knowledge and experience in Fire Engineering design to deliver value to projects.

Reuben is a Chartered Professional Engineer (CPEng) and a Chartered Member of Engineering New Zealand (CMEngNZ).

Mathew has a bachelor’s degree in advanced mechanical engineering from the University of Sydney and a Master of Fire Safety Engineering from the University of Western Sydney.

With over 10 years experience, Mathew has substantial experience on a wide range of projects including retail, residential, commercial and healthcare. Mathew specialises in the use of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) software to test buildings during the design phase in order to determine the potential impacts of fire and smoke spread. By combining this type of assessment with agent based occupant evacuation modelling, Mathew is able to optimise a building design, rationalising smoke exhaust rates, number of exits and provision of other fire services whilst still providing suitable levels of fire and life safety.

Mathew is accredited as a Chartered Member of Engineers Australia (CPEng), a Registered Engineer on the National Professional Engineers Register (NPER) in Fire Safety, a C10 Accredited Certifier (Fire Safety Engineering Compliance) in NSW and a Registered Professional Engineer (Fire Engineering) of Queensland (RPEQ).

Since graduating with a master’s in fire engineering (2006), Paul worked as a research associate with the University of Ulster on a program to develop innovative techniques and technology to minimise the influence of concrete spalling under fire conditions to existing tunnel structures. This included the implementation of large scale fire tests for experimental data analysis, networking and working closely with industrial partners in executing data and participating in major research funding programs within Europe.

Paul has also previously worked as a lead fire design and forensic consultant in Vancouver, British Columbia and Canada. His role involved building fire design services in relation to the applicable building code and fire code based on legal prerequisites. Providing forensic engineering services for building owners, tenants, lawyers and insurers to determine the probable fire origin, and likely causation and fire spread mechanisms. Responsibilities of fire investigation included the examination and documentation of fire scenes, coordinating with testing laboratories, liaison with relevant authorities (private and public) and the preparation of reports that may be used in civil or criminal litigation.

Paul is the Wellington Branch Manager, however also has a role as a Project Director with over 11 years of experience in the NZ industry. His experience has involved local and national based projects, working in all sectors, serving building facilities, property portfolios and industrial installations. Paul’s key projects range from commercial refurbishments to healthcare, shopping complexes, industrial and high rise residential developments; applying either Building Code Technical Guidance (C/AS1-7), Verification Method designs (C/VM2) or Specific Fire Engineering Design based upon sound fire engineering principles/computational analysis and international best practice.

Starting with a clean piece of paper for each design, Paul’s approach is to ultimately meet both the clients and architects needs and expectations in key operational performance, whilst still meeting statutory compliance requirements. Having experience in the New Zealand, Australasian, North American, UK and Irish fire safety design markets, he is able to bring International best practice to the all projects that he is involved with.

Paul is a Chartered Professional Engineer (CPEng) and a Member of the Institution of Professional Engineers New Zealand (CMEngNZ), and a Member of the Society of Fire Protection Engineers (SFPE).

Gordon has a master’s degree in fire engineering (2010), and a Bachelor of Civil Engineering (1992), both from the University of Canterbury, New Zealand. He has over 20 years of engineering consulting practice which provides a strong base for his role as Branch Manager of our Hawke’s Bay office since 2014. He is a Chartered Member of Engineering New Zealand and a Chartered Professional Engineer.

Gordon worked as a Structural Engineer in New Zealand and United Kingdom before returning to New Zealand in 2001, starting his own engineering consulting company in 2004. He has worked on a wide range of building structures and civil structures throughout this time, with increased involvement in Fire Engineering.

Gordon’s interest in Fire Engineering began within the university topic of timber engineering, followed by the NZ Building Act introduced in 1991. He attended a course on the NZ Building Code fire documents in 1993 to expand his expertise for his initial Local Authority role.

Gordon’s strengths are an ability to work unsupervised and take projects from initial Client contact to completion. He understands the entire process, from problem definition to design solution. He is a very good communicator throughout the process and will confidently use written and verbal communication skills, including face-to-face meetings to carry out complex engineering projects.

Gordon has particular technical strengths that relate to the buildings he works on most often, namely large footprint primary sector industrial buildings with high rack storage and large quantities of stored goods. He is also strong in other commercial buildings, office and retail, as well as residential sleeping-type buildings.

In performing his technical engineering calculations he exhibits strengths in the use of B-Risk zone modelling and fire engineering design, based on the Verification Method (C/VM2).

Martin started work in structural engineering in 1983 and has been applying performance-based fire engineering in professional practice since 1994. He was one of the pioneers of the fire engineering profession in New Zealand and a founding member of Holmes Fire. Martin is a highly experienced and talented engineer who specialises in fire engineering design and the performance and response of structures during fire. He is a passionate advocate for performance-based fire engineering design.

Martin has a Bachelor of Civil Engineering (Auckland) and a master’s degree in fire engineering from the University of Canterbury, New Zealand. He is a Chartered Professional Engineer (CPEng), an International Professional Engineer and a Fellow of Engineers New Zealand (ENZ) and a Fellow of the Society of Fire Protection Engineers (SFPE).

Michael has 22 years regulatory experience in Local Government with a proven proficiency in the application of building regulations and performance-based fire safety engineering.

Michael graduated from the University of Western Sydney with a Master of Fire Safety Engineering in 2000 and now combines his experience and knowledge to offer a unique linkage between fire engineering design and regulatory requirements.

Michael’s experience in both government and private industry allow him to provide an effective facilitator role between the client and regulatory authorities. Michael has been involved in numerous BCA assessments and performance-based fire engineering designs for residential, commercial, retail, industrial, healthcare, educational and assembly buildings.

Michael is a member of both the Australian Institution of Building Surveyors (AIBS) and The Association of Accredited Certifiers (AAC) being nationally accredited as a building surveyor, is a member of the Society of Fire Safety and is a C10 Accredited Certifier (Fire Safety Engineering Compliance) in NSW.

Kevin has a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering and a Master of Fire Engineering from the University of Canterbury, New Zealand. Kevin has over 17 years of experience in documenting fire safety solutions, the majority in NZ and 2 years in Australia. These solutions include following the prescriptive compliance documents (Deemed-to-Satisfy), as well as detailing Performance Solutions incorporating computer fire and egress modelling, and/or deterministic qualitative assessments to demonstrate compliance with the performance requirements of the respective Building Code.

Kevin is highly skilled at construction monitoring of passive and active fire safety systems to ensure the requirements of the fire design are suitably constructed.

Kevin is a Chartered Professional Engineer (CPEng) and a Member of the Institution of Professional Engineers in both New Zealand and Australia and is a Registered Professional Engineer of Queensland.