Consultants

Dr. David Embrey, Managing Director

Dr. David Embrey is the Managing Director of Human Reliability. He originally trained as a physicist and holds degrees in physics, ergonomics and applied psychology from the University of Birmingham and the University of Aston in England. After receiving his Ph.D. in human factors, he has subsequently worked for 25 years in the area of human reliability in systems, where he has published more than a hundred papers and reports and co-authored two books.

His main technical interest has been the assessment and improvement of human performance in systems. He has worked extensively in the petrochemical, nuclear power, rail transport, aerospace systems and marine sectors in Europe, the Far East, USA and South America.

His consultancy experience has included work in the USA, Japan, and Singapore as well as several European countries. He has worked for a number of large multinationals in the petrochemical sector, and has written a definitive text ‘Guidelines for Preventing Human Error in Process Safety’.

In the area of training, Dr.Embrey has developed many courses in human factors and human error prevention which have been given to companies in Japan, South America, the Middle East and Europe.

Jamie Henderson, Senior Consultant

Jamie Henderson holds a degree in Psychology from the University of Liverpool and a Masters degree in Ergonomics from Loughborough University . He is a member of the Ergonomics Society and has experience in a wide range of project areas and industry sectors. Over the past few years much of his work has been in the process industries, undertaking projects for companies such as BP, National Grid, ConocoPhillips, Borealis, Huntsman and Acetate Products. This work has given him considerable experience in the development of qualitative human reliability assessments for safety cases, and in the related areas of procedures and training.

In addition, Jamie has also made significant contributions to research projects covering diverse topics such as accident investigation, safety culture, remote working, emergency planning and safety critical checking. These projects have taken place in pharmaceutical, rail and aviation industries, as well as for regulatory bodies such as the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) and Civil Aviation Authority (CAA).

Alison Hubbard, Senior Consultant

Alison has almost 20 years of experience in Human Factors research and consultancy across a wide range of safety critical industries.  Her work has involved implementing and evaluating new and established Human Factors tools and techniques such as task analysis, consensus groups, safety culture, incident reporting and investigation, Human Factors integration plans, and integrating Human Factors within safety reports. 

She has built long term relationships within the oil and gas sector as an expert advisor developing and managing the implementation of a human factors process to identify and address the risks of human error at top-tier COMAH sites.  She has been the key provider of Human Factors advice at LNG Storage sites and terminals, raising awareness of Human Factors issues and providing training in tools and techniques, as well as subsequent support and specialist advice (including control room evaluations, shift handover reviews, input to HAZOPs, advice on safe control of operations, implementing better management of procedures and improving training and competency development).

She was lead researcher in a recent major public sector project evaluating the impact of organisational change on front line working practices and outcomes for service users within a London Borough’s Children’s Social Services.  She is a skilled interviewer and is a trainer in Human Factors, contributing to in-house courses on human error, procedure development and incident investigation and the Sheffield University MSc on Process Safety and Loss Prevention.  In the area of healthcare, after working in Safer Clinical Systems, she has developed training tools to address the lack of Human Factors training for patient safety. 

Dr. Stephen Cross, Associate Consultant

Dr Stephen Cross studied Biological Sciences at the University of Birmingham in the United Kingdom, where he obtained a 1st Class honours degree. Steve’s PhD was at the same institution, where his research field was molecular population genetics. Subsequently, Steve became BP Venture Research Fellow at UMIST in Manchester, UK, and studied on the Manchester Business School’s MBA programme.

After his post-doctoral work, Steve moved into manufacturing management where he led innovative programmes in product development and world-class manufacturing systems, including TQM and JIT. For the past seven years, Steve has been a consultant in usability, marketing and human factors, and has been working with Human Reliability since 1999.

Steve’s work with Human Reliability has included usability trials and research, in association with Siemens, for a mobile phone project. He was also part of the HRA team conducting a major project for the Health and Safety Executive on the effects of accidents and work-related illness in the healthcare and construction sectors. In the process industry, Steve has worked on production systems, procedures and operator compliance, as well as a study of the safety climate on off-shore platforms in the petro-chemical industry.

More recently, Steve has conducted majore projects in incident reporting, organisational culture and impact evaluation in the UK healthcare sector. He is currently Human Factors consultant and Site Co-ordinator on The Health Foundation's Safer Clinical Systems programme.

Claire Whittington, Associate Consultant

Claire Whittington is a consultant human factors specialist and organisational psychologist and holds a degree in ergonomics from the University of Technology, Loughborough, and an MSc in Organisational Psychology from the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology. Her original specialisation was in the area of accident analysis and prevention. More recently she has been involved in work in procedures development, and as an organisational psychologist with particular interests in learning organisations and self-managed teams.

10 years of research and lecturing experience was gained at:

• Medical School, University of Manchester
• University of Technology, Loughborough
• Ergonomics and Environmental Health laboratory, Kooperativa Forbundet, Stockholm
• Department of Safety and Hygiene, University of Aston

During her academic career her research was published widely in the academic press and presented at academic conferences. In addition, she conducted a research programme for the Scientific Advisory Branch of the Home Office on Techniques for the Collection of Accident Data. She has been a member of the Ergonomics Society Membership Committee, a British Standards Institution Technical Committee and has acted as an organising secretary and advisor for the Child Accident Prevention Trust.

Her current interests are:

• Investigation of safety and quality incidents
• Organisational learning
• Data collection systems and root cause analysis in safety and quality management
• Design and auditing of operating procedures and procedure management systems
• Design and evaluation of management systems in the context of safety and quality
• Development of management training courses in human reliability, problem solving, team building and self-management
• Process redesign and continuous improvement
• Safety culture
• Consumer safety and home accidents

At present, Claire is leading a project for the HSE identifying and evaluating the social and psychological impact of workplace accidents and incidents of ill health on employees.