Our Team
Adam Bittern, Director/Owner
PhD, CEng, MEng, MiFireE, SFPE
Adam founded the Astute Fire brand whilst studying for his PhD in 2010 has applied creative fire-engineered solutions to numerous projects on four different continents over the past 20 years. Earlier in his career, working for the fire service, Adam undertook forensic analysis of real building fires, assessing the effectiveness of fire safety systems, and authoring reports which were used to shape fire safety regulations. Adam was also involved in the writing of tall building procedures for firefighting for the New Zealand Fire Service.
He is the author of numerous refereed papers on fire engineering in tall buildings, highlighting critical elements of a fire safety strategy to identify the current state-of-the-art of fire safety design in tall buildings. and the current state-of-the-art of fire safety design. He has provided Section 38 expert advice on several cases in UK, as well as supporting roles on multiple expert witness cases.
Kenny Hamill, Director/Owner
BEng (Hons), MRICS, MIFireE, MCABE
Kenny is a Director of Astute Fire and has been a fire engineering consultant for over 16 years working on some iconic projects. He has extensive experience and a passion for developing fire engineering solutions for historic buildings and Healthcare facilities. Kenny recognises that it is essential to strike a balance between fire-safety provision and relevant conservation issues to arrive at the optimum solution, every historic building is unique, and solutions must be tailored individually to each building.
Prior to fire engineering, he was a Building Standards Surveyor with several Scottish Local Authorities, this background has developed an excellent understanding of the Building Control system and fire-related issues.
Callum MacInnes, Director/Owner
BSc (Hons), AIFireE
Callum is a fire engineering consultant with over 15 years experience of dealing with projects in the UK, Europe, and further afield. Callum is heavily involved in the day-to-day running of Astute with a focus on the financial and team management. He has developed many fire strategies for office developments throughout the UK including the Silver Fin in Aberdeen adopting BS 9999 and the high-rise mixed-use project Skylines in London with Farrell’s.
He has co-authored papers on passive fire protection in healthcare. Callum also has a keen interest in the use of historic buildings and developing fire strategies that factor in the unique aspects of such buildings as well as delivering and PAS 9980 / Single Building Assessments.
Jim McGonigal, Head of Technical
PhD, CEng, MCABE, MRICS, MIFireE
James is an experienced practicing-chartered building engineer specialising in fire engineering and building regulations. James is one of the in-house team of experts on building and fire regulations. In his previous role, Jim was the Scottish Government’s national regulatory for fire safety of new buildings at the Building Standards Division. James has an in-depth understanding of fire safety legislation and guidance and of the building regulatory system.
He has also provided technical leadership and advice on the regulations and guidance to Scottish Ministers, local authority verifiers, and the design community, as well as working with the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service in the development of national guidance. In addition, he represented the Scottish Government on various British Standard technical committees and was a board member of the RICS (Scotland Building Control Professional Group).
In 2023 Jim took on a new role as Head of Technical after deciding to take a step back from the day-to-day responsibilities of helping to run the Astute business as he moves towards his retirement.
He will still to be actively involved with Astute’s expert witness and external wall work and continue to remain an important part of Astute, albeit in a much-reduced capacity.
Fraser McCourt, Technical Director
BSc (Hons) AIFireE
Fraser joined Astute Fire as an Associate Director in May 2021 and is an experienced practicing fire engineer with over 17 years of industry experience. He brings with him knowledge, skills, and experience working in a wide variety of sectors, including education, rail, industrial, healthcare, commercial projects, hotels, stadiums, airports, and tunnels.
He has also worked for the former Strathclyde Fire and Rescue Service in the role of Regulatory Authority. Fraser has experience utilising building codes from both inside and outside the UK involving writing technical notes to support design submissions for code compliant and performance-based design, writing fire safety strategies, undertaking third-party reviews, and PAS 9980 / Single Building Assessments.
As Technical Director, Fraser will contribute more to the overall running of the business whilst continuing to play a key role for the Glasgow office team in staff management and project delivery.
Bill Hay, Associate
PhD, BSc (Hons), MiFireE, C.Build E
Bill gained his PhD in 2015 with his thesis investigating fire-stopping of service penetrations in engineered fire-resisting floors. He has over 30 years experience working in the construction industry and then higher education. Now practicing as a fire engineer at senior and associate levels, Bill has successfully developed and delivered fire strategies and fire engineering solutions for a variety of projects.
He uses his knowledge and experience in building control, building construction, and regulatory codes to develop solutions that enable concepts to be realised.
David Meikle, Associate
PhD MRICS, MIFireE
David began his initial career in building surveying, working predominantly on the refurbishment of Victorian tenement properties. Following a move into local government Building Standards in 1987, he served numerous Local Authorities over the next 30 years, working on a variety of interesting projects.
Whilst with Building Standards, and following his passion for fire safety, he gained a PhD in 2018 from Glasgow Caledonian University. His thesis is titled ‘The effect of fire on lightweight timber-framed walls containing rigid phenolic insulation’ During this period, David also lectured as an affiliate on Glasgow Caledonian University’s BEng Fire Risk Engineering for 5 years, covering framed building design in relation to fire safety. He left local government in 2018 and joined Hardies Property and Construction Consultants, working as an Associate within their H&S department before joining Astute Fire in August 2021 as an Associate and leading the Dundee office.
Michael Nicol, Fire Engineer
BEng (Hons), AIFireE
Michael has been working in the industry since graduating with a BSc (Hons) in Fire Risk Engineering at Glasgow Caledonian University in 2015. He has worked as a fire engineering consultant on projects in the UK, and also on a large number of projects in the Republic of Ireland. Michael has gained extensive fire engineering experience within historic buildings.
His projects span a variety of sectors which has also gained him experience in suppression system design, fire risk assessments, smoke control systems, fire and smoke modelling, evacuation simulation, and producing performance-based fire engineering solutions.
Luke Cadman, Principal Design Associate
In his previous role, Luke was a senior architect with extensive experience of developing and delivering complex projects from inception to completion across a broad range of sectors including workplace, retail and residential, within the UK and abroad. Luke graduated from the University of Strathclyde in Architectural Studies in 2009 including a semester studying at the Technische Universität Berlin.
He has worked on several high-profile projects nationwide, managing and realising projects using Building Information Modelling for over a decade. Bringing Luke’s expertise into the business enhances and strengthens Astute’s team in responding to the increasing technical review of designs, external wall reviews and construction phase site monitoring.
John Thompson, Senior
Fire Engineer
John Thompson has an extensive background in Local Authority Building Standards as well as subsequent experience in the private sector in a consultancy capacity.
John is a member and assessor with The Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) as well as a Chartered Building Engineer.
Adam Henderson, Design Associate
After graduating with a Diploma of Architecture from the Glasgow School of Art in 2020, Adam worked in architectural practice before joining Astute. In his previous role, he was heavily involved in projects through design, planning, building warrant and construction stages.
Adam brings with him the technical design skills and construction knowledge , along with an eagerness to learn the intricacies of Fire Engineering, which contribute to his undertakings with PAS 9980/ Single Building Assessments and external wall reviews.
Craig McMahon, Fire Engineer
MSc, MEng
Craig has been working in fire engineering since graduating with an MSc in Structural and Fire Safety Engineering from the University of Edinburgh in 2020. His primary area of interest is the use of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) modelling, which he has applied to a diverse range of building projects.
Craig also has experience in contributing to fire strategy reports, timber frame assessment reports, and engaging in technical research.
Maria Sørensen-Bentham, Site Engineer
mENg (hons), GMICE
Maria Sørensen-Bentham, joined Astute Fire as a Site Engineer based in our Dundee Office after nearly 7 years as a Project Engineer with Sir Robert McAlpine, managing Fire Protection and Fire Stopping packages on site from design review to construction. Maria has always found fire protection engaging and her goals are to improve her knowledge and experience in Fire Engineering and contribute to find creative solutions to complex challenges.
Euan Meikle, Fire Engineer
BENg
Euan graduated first-class with a BEng Building Services Engineering from Glasgow Caledonian University in 2021. After working briefly with Viridis Building Services undertaking designs for carbon ‘net zero’ buildings, he joined Astute as a graduate fire engineer.
He is currently gaining experience in all fields to develop a strong knowledge base, with a particular focus on contributing towards large hospital projects, where he will be working alongside experienced engineers both on and off-site.
Caitlin Crossan, Finance Manager
BA (HONS)
With a BA (Hons) in Business & Management from the University of the West of Scotland, Caitlin brings 6 years of business and accounts experience to her role managing the day-to-day finances, credit control, and invoicing for Astute.
Caitlin is the main point of contact for clients in relation to invoices to ensure the efficient running of the business.
Audrey Meikle, Business Manager
MRes, BA(Hons)
Audrey joined Astute in 2022 and manages all the business processes and procedures to ensure compliance. Audrey brings with her over 25 years of experience in both public and private sectors successfully developing business relationships and managing projects within the built and natural environment.
She has a knowledge of fire engineering, gained whilst working at Glasgow Caledonian University where she attained her DipHE in Fire Safety Design and Regulation. Latterly, Audrey worked as a freelance business consultant for clients within the built environment.
CONTACT US
For more information, or to discuss how Astute could help you, get in touch.