Overview

You are invited to attend the annual meeting of the Central Scotland Member Group, featuring a guest human factors presentation from Syngenta as well as review of the year's activity from the group.

We have a number of exciting opportunities to join our committee this year (see descriptions below). Expected time commitment over the year is expected to be 2-4hrs per month (varies based on events), including a monthly Teams committee meeting.

Food will be provided at the start of the event, with networking opportunities before and after the guest and committee presentations.

Why volunteer?

Volunteering provides an interesting and rewarding opportunity to develop personal skills and network with other professionals, as well as the opportunity to support the advancement of chemical engineering. It is widely accepted that volunteering will help you meet new people, learn new skills, contribute to your continuing professional development (CPD), and even advance your career.

Academic liaison

You will serve as a vital link between Scottish academic institutions and the Scottish Member Group. This role involves fostering collaborative relationships, facilitating communication, and co-ordinating joint initiatives between the committee, industry participants and the academic institution to enhance educational opportunities and potential research advancements.

Secretary

As the committee secretary, you will attend all committee meetings, taking minutes to track ongoing activities and member actions. You will be in charge of communications with the IChemE's organisational team and member message boards (eg IChemE Connect).

Treasurer

As treasurer, you will work with the committee budget for and fund events during the year. You will agree the annual budget with central IChemE, maintain financial records, report regularly on finances and ensure compliance with IChemE financial rules and regulations. You may also support fundraising efforts throughout the year.

General member

General members for the Scottish Member Group Committee will play an integral role in organising events throughout the year. As a minimum, members will be required to plan one event a year (eg a technical talk, site tour, disastrous dinner, social event). This could involve hiring venues, booking speakers and chairing the event. It’s a great example for those working towards chartership (Section D1) or for those looking to give back and volunteer for the institute.

Speakers

Diane McGivern, Global Lead - Occupational and Behavioural Safety, Syngenta

Diane has 25 years of experience working within the agrochemical and pharmaceutical manufacturing industries, with over 10 years working in specialist HSE roles within high hazard chemical manufacturing environments (upper tier COMAH sites). She provides leadership and functional expertise in a wide range of HSE related areas, including occupational and behavioural safety; incident investigation; and human performance.

Diane has also successfully established methodologies and tools for behavioural based safety (BBS), safety culture (both development and assessment) and incident investigation, in the pursuit of HSE excellence.

Ross Kennedy, Head of DPI Manufacturing / HSEQ and Simulation-Modeling, Syngenta

Ross is the global lead for Syngenta Group for HSE business architecture and process design, supporting major strategic initiatives, at both a global and regional level.

His technical background is as a Chartered Chemical Engineer (CEng), with experience working in a high-hazard production environments on an upper-tier COMAH site as an HSE Professional, Production Manager and as a manufacturing support process engineer.

Ross has also held roles as both a project (waterfall, hybrid and agile) and program manager, running both local and global digital transformation and change management initiatives.

Gary Callachan, Business Development Lead, RSE

Gary is the current business development lead for RSE a leading UK water technology specialist. Over his career, Gary has applied chemical engineering and postgraduate research to design, install, and commission chemical dosing systems for municipal and industrial water projects across the UK and internationally.

He has over 15 years of experience in the water and wastewater treatment field, with a particular focus on chlorine dioxide chemistries and disinfection applications.

Time

18:30–20:30 GMT.

Software

The presentation will be delivered via Microsoft Teams. We recommend downloading the app from the Microsoft website, rather than using the web portal.​