BESA appoints director of specialist knowledge

Rachel Davidson has been appointed to the new position of director of specialist knowledge at the Building Engineering Services Association.

Davidson will have a particular focus on the Building Safety Act and its implications for BESA members and the wider specialist building services sector.

“The new Act is just starting to make its presence felt but represents a fundamental shift in the way building engineering companies will need to go about their business from now on,” said BESA chief executive officer David Frise.

Davidson has worked at BESA for more than 30 years in a variety of roles most recently as director of certification. She was also head of technical schemes and knowledge for 10 years until 2013 and served as a board director of Piper Insurance, which provides critical illness cover for the building engineering industry.

The Association has tasked her with what it considers to be “the most important legislative development in a generation”. It said the Building Safety Act would bring about “profound change to the UK’s construction and engineering professions” and lead to widespread ‘culture change’ in the wake of the Grenfell Tower disaster and the subsequent public inquiry.

Davidson said she was delighted to be taking on “this crucial work” which will involve building up in-depth knowledge of the Act and the secondary legislation that will be used to implement its measures.