IOSH Middle East Branch Conference and AGM
05 May 2010
Our first IOSH Middle East Annual
Conference was a huge success, attracting over 130 delegates from
across the UAE and from further afield, including Nigeria, Canada
and the UK. The event, held on 28 April at the Radisson Blu Hotel,
Abu Dhabi Yas Island, was buzzing with enthusiasm, as delegates
made the most of the knowledge sharing and networking opportunities
on offer.
The conference was followed by the Middle East Branch AGM, where
members cast their votes for the new branch committee and received
key updates on recent developments at IOSH, branch activity, CPD
and mentoring. The meeting closed with the committee election
results – Peter Barnett-Schuster remained chair of the branch for
another year and Dave Bass was elected the new vice-chair.
The conference and AGM closed with the signing of an important
Memorandum of Understanding between IOSH and BuildSafe UAE. The
memorandum recognises our shared commitment in creating a safer,
healthier world of work, and marks an agreement to work closely
together in the future.
The memorandum was signed by IOSH president John Holden and
BuildSafe UAE chairman Grahame McCaig. Both organisations see the
agreement as building an important, influential and constructive
relationship which will have a positive influence in the
region.
The day closed with a black-tie gala dinner, where John Holden
presented the President’s Distinguished Service Award (PDSA) to
Ahmed Al Menhali, who chaired the IOSH Middle East branch from 2007
to 2009. With 32 years’ experience in health and safety, Ahmed has
worked on many industrial and governmental committees and task
forces, including the Abu Dhabi Government Environmental Protection
Committee, the taskforce for developing the UAE Environmental
Strategy, the UAE Traffic Safety Strategy, and the UAE Occupational
Health Strategy. It was felt that his contribution as chair of the
Middle East branch, his tireless commitment to raising standards
across the region and his hard work in getting IOSH known with
regulators and stakeholders, made him the perfect candidate for the
Middle East’s first PDSA.
Ahmed dedicated his award – presented on the evening of
International Workers’ Memorial Day – to the people who have died
at work. He told guests they should be proud of the work they do,
putting basic systems in place, to help save lives, adding that we
know our failures but we don’t know our successes.