Mike Ashton is IPAF’s new International Safety & Technical Advisor, bringing to the role expertise from more than 25 years in technical, training and business management positions.
The International Powered Access Federation (IPAF) has appointed Mike Ashton as its International Safety & Technical Advisor.
Ashton brings more than 25 years of experience in business management, safety, engineering, and training in the UK, Middle East, and Australia.
Ashton joins IPAF from Lift Industries, Queensland, Australia, the Australian Distributor for Terex insulated travel towers and crane borers, where he was business development manager.
Before that he held a similar role with AWD, capital equipment specialists in Perth, Western Australia.
He was Resources Manager at the Elevating Work Platform Association (EWPA) of Australia and held business development and training manager positions at Access Service Australia either side of a spell as HSEQ & Training Manager at Rapid Access in the UAE. Before that he held both instructor and service engineer roles at AFI-Uplift, Nationwide and PTP Aerial Platforms in the UK.
Ashton will continue to be based in Queensland and will report to Brian Parker, IPAF head of safety and technical, who says: “The primary responsibilities of Mike’s role will be to use his skills and commercial expertise to advise, support and develop the safety and technical aspects of IPAF’s business around the world. Key functions will be to summarize complex safety and technical ideas, prepare how-to guides, white papers and manuals, create and edit content for internal or external documents, and to assist in identifying strategies and opportunities for safety and technical initiatives.
“We’re delighted to appoint Mike following a rigorous search process and are confident he’s a perfect fit with the IPAF team and culture. He has valuable experience in the UK, Middle East, Australia and New Zealand powered access markets, and he will bring his obvious diligence and expertise to the role. We can’t wait for him to get started.”
Peter Douglas, CEO & MD of IPAF, comments: “I am delighted IPAF is able to announce this important addition to the Safety & Technical department – I’m sure that we have found the ideal candidate in Mike and he will fit in well to the IPAF culture, bolstering the team to help deliver significant progress against some of our key objectives, including incident reporting, collaborating on the development and implementation of new standards and in generating safety and technical guidance including the IPAF Toolbox Talks series of workplace safety briefings. We’re very happy to welcome him on board.”
Ashton said: “When I saw this role advertised, I felt it was an ideal opportunity for me. I hope to be able to lend my knowledge and expertise to assist IPAF in delivering important projects in terms of standards development and implementation, safety awareness and guidance, the global incident reporting project or the IPAF ePAL app for operators of MEWP and MCWP equipment. I’m looking forward to this new challenge immensely.”
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