Steve Topham – Company Director
Strategic Advisor | Emergency Planning & Incident Command
Steve brings extensive senior leadership experience from across the Fire and Rescue Service, with a career spanning operational response, emergency planning, and strategic service leadership. He has held senior command and executive roles, operating at strategic (Gold) level and contributing to the management of complex incidents and declared emergencies within multi-agency and Local Resilience Forum environments.
Throughout his career, Steve has led the development of operational capability, resilience planning, and organisational support functions, ensuring that emergency response arrangements are effective, compliant, and fit for purpose. His experience includes working closely with partner agencies, industry, and government stakeholders to plan for foreseeable risks and manage high-impact events.
Steve is highly respected for his calm, analytical approach and his ability to translate operational experience into practical, proportionate planning and assurance. He brings a strong values-based mindset, grounded in professionalism, integrity, and accountability, and is passionate about preparing organisations and leaders to make sound decisions under pressure.
Within the team, Steve provides strategic insight, assurance, and governance expertise, supporting clients operating in complex, high-consequence environments.
Nick Granger – Associate
Managing Director | Emergency Response & Resilience
Nick is an experienced emergency response and resilience professional with a strong background in operational leadership, training delivery, and industry engagement. His career has focused on bridging the gap between emergency services and industry, helping organisations understand risk, preparedness, and their role within wider emergency response systems.
Nick has worked extensively with industrial and critical infrastructure organisations, supporting emergency planning, incident management capability, leadership development, and crisis preparedness. His experience spans a wide range of sectors, including energy, manufacturing, and high-risk operational environments, where effective preparation and decision-making are essential.
He is known for his practical, realistic approach — challenging assumptions, avoiding unnecessary complexity, and focusing on what will work under real operational conditions. Nick places particular emphasis on leadership behaviours, command and control, and the ability to operate effectively when information is limited and pressure is high.
As Managing Director, Nick leads the organisation’s strategic direction, ensuring that all services are operationally credible, proportionate, and aligned to statutory and regulatory expectations. His values centre on integrity, collaboration, and building genuine readiness rather than paper compliance.
Rick Phillips – Associate
Airport Response Manager | Health, Environment & Compliance Director
Rick is a highly experienced safety, health, environment, and compliance professional with a career spanning both emergency services and complex operational environments. Following a substantial career in the Fire and Rescue Service, Rick transitioned into senior safety and compliance roles within industry, where he has led the development and assurance of robust risk management frameworks.
He has extensive experience operating in highly regulated and high-risk settings, providing assurance around statutory compliance, governance, and organisational resilience. Rick holds recognised professional qualifications in occupational health and safety and is a Chartered member of IOSH, reflecting his commitment to professional standards and continuous improvement.
Rick’s approach is pragmatic and evidence-based, focusing on embedding effective safety culture, clear accountability, and defensible systems rather than excessive process. He brings strong assurance capability, supporting organisations to demonstrate compliance, readiness, and resilience under audit and external scrutiny.
Within the team, Rick leads on safety, quality, and governance, ensuring that all advice and delivery is credible, auditable, and aligned to best practice — supporting clients where assurance and consequence management are critical.
Philip Leake – Associate
Senior Advisor | Emergency Management & Corporate Resilience
Philip is a highly experienced emergency management and resilience professional with over 30 years of service in the UK Fire and Rescue Service, where he progressed to senior leadership roles with responsibility for tactical and strategic command, organisational leadership, and long-term strategic planning. His career has centred on leading complex incident response and strengthening organisational preparedness in high-risk environments.
Following his service in the UK, Philip transitioned to the Middle East oil, gas, and energy sector, operating at Assistant Manager level within QatarEnergy. In this role, he has delivered emergency planning and response coordination across large-scale onshore and offshore industrial facilities, supporting critical national infrastructure and high-consequence operations.
Philip has led the redesign and implementation of emergency planning frameworks and exercise programmes, embedding improved governance, capability, and operational readiness across corporate functions and government interfaces. He has also directed strategic corporate emergency response arrangements during a significant geopolitical missile crisis in Qatar, demonstrating calm leadership and structured decision-making under pressure.
Philip brings a measured, disciplined approach to resilience, combining operational command experience with corporate governance expertise. He is committed to building credible, defensible emergency management systems that enhance organisational confidence, accountability, and sustained resilience.
Barry Pearman – Associate
Tactical Advisor | Emergency Services Performance Manager
Barry is a seasoned emergency response and performance professional with extensive operational experience and a commitment to improving emergency services delivery across industrial and high-risk environments. In his role as Emergency Services Performance Manager at HFR Solutions, Barry brings a wealth of frontline expertise, shaping performance frameworks and capability development that strengthen organisational readiness and response competence.
Barry’s career reflects deep engagement with emergency response, emergency planning preparation, and multi-agency collaboration. He plays a key role in ensuring that training, response procedures, and performance standards reflect real-world demands, helping clients build confidence and capability across their teams.
His work encompasses designing and evaluating emergency training packages, monitoring performance outcomes, and supporting organisational learning to improve resilience. Barry’s approach is practical and outcome-focused, driven by a belief in continuous improvement and evidence-based practice.
Within the team, Barry is valued for his ability to translate operational insight into performance improvement, governance alignment, and resilient emergency readiness — helping organisations prepare, respond and adapt effectively under pressure.
Brenan Barker – Associate
Technical Lead | Emergency Response & Rescue Training
Brenan is a highly skilled emergency response and rescue instructor specialising in technical rescue disciplines and practical emergency management training. As Technical Lead at HFR Solutions, he is responsible for delivering advanced training programmes, mentoring responders, and enhancing operational capability across a range of high-risk sectors, including industrial, energy, and onsite emergency response environments.
Throughout his career, Brenan has supported organisations with realistic, scenario-based emergency response training that emphasises decision-making, safety competence, and performance under stress. His expertise includes confined space rescue, working at height rescue, emergency response team coordination, and the delivery of accredited response training aligned to industry standards.
Brenan’s technical leadership extends to live operational support and the development of training materials that reflect current industry risks and best practices. He collaborates closely with clients to tailor training that meets specific site needs, regulatory requirements, and emergency planning goals.
Known for his commitment to competence development and operational realism, Brenan helps build capable responders who are confident, competent, and ready for real emergencies — supporting safer workplaces and stronger resilience throughout HFR Solutions’ operational footprint.
Keith Evans – Associate
Training Consultant | Emergency Response & Preparedness Specialist
Keith is an experienced emergency response and resilience professional who brings hands-on operational insight and training expertise to support organisations preparing for complex risk environments. In his role as Training Consultant at HFR Solutions CIC, Keith designs and delivers practical, scenario-based training programmes that bridge the gap between theory and real-world operational performance. He works across supervisory, tactical, and strategic levels, helping participants from industry and emergency services develop the knowledge and skills needed to manage the unexpected with confidence.
Throughout his career, Keith has focused on supporting capability development, incident readiness, and inter-agency collaboration. His work is grounded in realistic, risk-informed training that emphasises decision-making under pressure, contextualised incident command principles, and effective coordination with multi-agency partners. He understands the importance of aligning training with statutory duties and organisational preparedness frameworks, ensuring that people and teams can perform effectively when incidents occur.
Keith is known for his pragmatic approach, clear communication style, and commitment to helping clients build resilient, capable responder communities. His contributions strengthen organisational confidence, reinforce leadership behaviours, and enhance preparedness across sectors where operational performance and safety are paramount.
Leigh Smith – Associate
Senior Instructor | Search, Rescue & Emergency Preparedness
Leigh is an experienced instructor and operational specialist with a distinguished background in search, rescue, and emergency response. He brings extensive experience from military service, policing, and specialist search operations — including search advisory and hazardous environment search functions — to his role as Senior Instructor with HFR Solutions.
Leigh’s expertise spans search coordination, confined space operations, working at height safety, and CBRN-related response training. His instructional work is informed by years of practical experience leading and supporting search and rescue operations, training multi-agency teams, and applying rigorous command and control principles in real-world scenarios.
Beyond training delivery, Leigh also contributes to regional search capability through roles such as Search Coordinator with Humberside Search & Rescue (HUMBSAR) — a professional volunteer search capability developed in partnership with police and local services. His leadership in this space has strengthened multi-agency response and community resilience.
Leigh is committed to excellence in emergency preparedness, structured decision-making, and continuous operational improvement, equipping responders and organisations to plan, prepare, and respond effectively in high-risk and dynamic environments.