Directors & Senior Operational Management

Group Staff

Roger Rawlings - Group Chairman

Roger has worked in the fire and security industry since 1973 when he joined the Chloride Group. He left Chloride to take up the post of sales & marketing director with the specialist emergency lighting company, Secundalux. In 1980 he formed a new fire protection company with a former business colleague, very soon after which Swift Alarms was acquired. Swift became an independent business in 1987 and has been headed by Roger since that time.

Paul Grist FRSA - Group Managing Director

Paul has been involved in the UK security industry since leaving school in 1977. During that time he has worked at a senior level in many of the country's best known security companies including, Group 4 Securicor & ADT. Paul was head of both special projects & marketing for Secom and sales and marketing director of Argus Fire & Security Group PLC. Latterly he was the commercial director of a £50M + Contracting & FM business.

Peter Thompson FCA - Group Finance Director

Peter qualified as a Chartered Accountant in 1974. Since then, apart from three years when he was a finance director of a thriving electronics company, he has been a partner in a number of accountancy practices. The last of these was D.F. Puttock & Co., our previous accountants, and when he retired in 2008 Peter accepted the invitation to be involved with our Group.

Baron Paul Waterman BSc - Group Technical, Health & Safety Director

Paul holds a BSc in Computer Science and has been employed in the private security sector since 1979, when he worked for the Security & Safety Group. He Joined Swift as a sales engineer in 1987 and went on to develop the companies IT systems making Swift the first UK based company to employ remote diagnostics within its security systems. He was promoted to technical director in 1991 and was appointed health & safety director in 2000. Paul is Chairman and Regional Chairman of the NSI/NACOSS Gold Scheme.

Colin Preston - Group Operations Manager

Colin has been employed within the private security and service support industries since 1980. He has worked at a senior managerial level for Securicor Alarms, Group 4 Total Security and Beach Communications, where he headed their CCTV & integrated systems operation. Colin's last position prior to Joining Swift Alarms Group, was with the Metropolitan Police Service, where he was responsible for the delivery of the CCTV solutions project for the 2012 Olympic Games.

Lynn Cooke - Group Accounts Manager

Lynn has worked in accounts since leaving school and specialised in reconciliation and incomplete records in the mid 1980s whilst working for a Tunbridge Wells based accountancy practice. This was followed by 12 years with Lamberts, a £30M mail order healthcare business where she had overall responsibility for accounts. Lynn joined Swift as accounts manager in 2001.

Andrew McDonnell - Group Personnel Manager

Andrew has worked in customer services since 1995, firstly in his native New Zealand, then in the Channel Islands after completing his studies at Canterbury University. Prior to joining Swift Alarms, Andrew worked as a key trainer and call centre manager for the then newly combined AMP/NPI Insurance business and later as call centre manager for a major division of Lehman Brothers. He joined Swift Alarms to head-up the company's enlarged administration department in 2005. He was promoted to his current position in 2010.

Swift Alarms Senior Operations Staff:

Paul Grist FRSA - Managing Director

Matthew Hitchcock - General Manager - Swift Auto-Gates

Matthew has a wide range of experience in the domestic, commercial and vehicular security systems sector and has worked for Swift Alarms since 2001. Matthew joined us as an engineer and gained experience in all of our engineering departments prior to becoming senior installation engineer. Matthew's was promoted to security operations manager in 2007. He was promoted again in 2010 and has overall management responsibility for our gate automation business.

Leigh Bragg - Installation Manager

Leigh joined Swift Alarms as a security systems service and installation engineer in 2002. He subsequently transferred to our fire alarms operation where he also worked as a service and installation engineer. Following the acquisition of Safyre, Leigh worked directly for our Field Operations Manager where he assisted with the planning of system installations. He was promoted to his current position in 2010.

David English - Service Manager

David has been involved in the security systems industry since 1985. He has worked as a service and installation engineer for a number of major companies including Chubb Alarms during which time he has gained a comprehensive knowledge in the service and installation of intruder alarms, CCTV & access control systems. David Joined Swift Alarms as a service and installation engineer in 2009 and was promoted to the position of service manager in 2010.

Safyre Senior Operations Staff:

Alan Neenan - Director & CEO

Alan started his career in 1966 in the field of mechanical and electrical building services design and contracting. After successfully moving into a management role with Pillinger-Air and later, Diffusion, in 1982 he decided upon a change of career. He moved into the fire suppression industry, where he was employed as managing director of Surefire Systems Ltd. Today, Alan sits on a number of influential fire industry standards committees where his considerable knowledge of mechanical, electrical & fire suppression systems engineering makes him an invaluable asset.

Jamie Joyce - Key Accounts Operations Manager

Jamie undertook a formal electrical apprenticeship with MJN immediately after leaving school in 1987. Following qualification, he was responsible for overseeing their larger fire alarm installation projects, including networked systems. In 1995 Jamie was approached by Safyre's managing director and joined soon afterwards. He undertook a number of engineering roles for the company, ultimately being promoted to fire projects engineer prior to assuming overall responsibility for the management of major fire systems projects and key accounts.

Tim Hudson - Fire Systems Engineering Manager

Tim first joined the fire alarm industry in 1980 working for Macanda in a variety of engineering roles. He joined Safyre in 1987 where he gained significant experience in a number of workshop and field based engineering positions, including; workshop manager and general manager. Today Tim heads-up the fire engineering department primarily providing support and direction for his field based colleagues.

Ben Park - Service Manager

Following school, Ben joined the National Health Service where he undertook his electrical apprenticeship, qualifying as an electrical technician. After leaving the health service, Ben Joined Kidde Fire Protection where he spent eight years in a variety of engineering positions, including senior engineer and engineering supervisor. He was ultimately promoted to service manager and retained that position until joining Safye as fire service manager in 2007. In 2009 Ben was promoted to Group Service Manager.