Men and women entrusted with the responsibilities of professionalising, organising, sanitising and transforming the security industry in the United Kingdom. Enter:

Baroness Ruth Henig CBE (Chairman)

Ruth Henig has extensive experience within the police and security sector. She is President of the Association of Police Authorities, former Chair of Lancashire Police Authority and a former member of the National Criminal Justice Board. She served as a Magistrate in Lancaster for 20 years and chaired Lancaster district's Community Safety Partnership. In 2000 Ruth was awarded a CBE for her services to policing, and in 2002 was appointed as a Deputy Lieutenant for Lancashire. In June 2004 she was made a life peer as Baroness Henig of Lancaster, and currently serves on the House of Lords European Scrutiny Committee covering Home Affairs and Justice

 

Robin Dahlberg (Vice-Chair)

Robin Dahlberg became an SIA Board Member on 1 April 2003. He has had an executive management career in the IT industry up to MD/CEO level in the UK, the US and Europe. He has held board level positions in organisations in the private and not-for-profit sectors since 1988. He currently holds Non-Executive Directorships at the Local Better Regulation Office and the Health and Safety Executive. He is also a Lay Member of the Advisory Panel on Standards for the Planning Inspectorate.

 

Bill Butler (Chief Executive Officer)

Bill Butler joined the SIA from the Gambling Commission, where as director of corporate services he was responsible for the finance, HR and IT and facilities departments. He was part of the team that led to the successful establishment of the new regulator.

Before joining the Gambling Commission in 2006, Mr Butler was head of finance at the Healthcare Commission, and has extensive experience with the Audit Commission.

A member of the Chartered institute of Public Finance, Butler studied Law at the University of the West of England.

 

Bill Matthews

Bill Matthews is director of management consultancy M2M2 Limited, working with a variety of public and private sector clients. He started his career with 15 years with Motorola in Scotland and America, and 4 years with Sigtronics in Livingston, before co-founding Invint Limited to develop processes for electronics manufacture.

A Chartered Engineer and Member of the Chartered Institute of Marketing, Bill holds an MBA together with first degrees in Electronics and Psychology. He is a non-executive director within Scottish Government, currently holding Audit Chair positions with the Corporate Audit Committee and the board of the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service. In early 2007 Bill was appointed to the board of the Scottish Police Services Authority, where he also chairs the HR committee. He is a senior member of the Audience Council for Scotland - a voluntary body that represents the views of licence payers to the BBC Trust.

 

Linda Sharpe

Linda Sharpe has 18 years experience in the private security industry and is a qualified HR professional. She worked for the security company Group 4 for 12 years, as Training Manager of the UK Training Company, as Head of Group 4's International Resource Centre and finally within Group 4 International where she was responsible for the development of top security teams across the world. This experience provided her with first hand knowledge of the many sectors of the Private Security Industry, both in the UK and abroad.

On the establishment of the SIA in 2003, Linda joined the Regulator where she led the competency development team for two and a half years in setting standards for licensing. During this time Linda headed a project which looked at the feasibility of establishing a sector skills body for the industry. At the end of 2005, Linda left the SIA to become Chief Executive of Skills for Security, the newly created skills and standards setting body for the private security industry. She retired from Skills for Security in July 2007.

 

Wendy Towers

Wendy became an SIA Board Member in October 2004. She is the former deputy chair of the Police Complaints Authority where she had overall responsibility for supervising investigations into the most serious complaints and non complaint matters involving the police and investigations concerning Chief Officers. Previously she was a member of the Parole Board and has also spent 25 years working in personnel, mostly in the retail sector dealing with managing change, establishing personnel, training functions and pay structures. Other relevant experience includes three years as a magistrate. Currently she is also a member of the British Transport Police Authority

 

Edward Weiss

Edward joined the SIA Board in 2010. A Chartered Accountant, he spent much of his career in the security industry as Finance Director of Chubb Security.

After leaving Chubb, Edward took on a range of non-executive positions, including as a Chairman of Loss Reviews at Lloyd's of London and sitting on its Corporate Finance Advisory Panel. He was previously on the board of the Chartered Accountants Compensation Company and is currently on its Appeals Panel and Actuarial Appeals Panel.

Edward has also sat on various committees of the Institute of Chartered Accountants, including as Chairman of the Pensions and Euro Committees and Deputy Chairman of the Business Law Committee. He is Chairman of the Development Committee of the Hundred Group of FTSE 100 Companies.

Edward is Chairman of the local YMCA and sits on its national Finance Committee, and is a trustee of a mental health charity