Laura King is NFPA’s Regional Director for Canada. Laura was the editor of Fire Fighting in Canada and Canadian Firefighter magazines for 10 years before moving to NFPA in 2017. She was a reporter and editor for more than 20 years for newspapers and magazines across Canada and the United States. Laura has an honours degree from Carleton University in journalism, political science, and public administration. She is a certified fire- and life-safety educator and holds several other certifications in fire, leadership, and mental health. Laura is from Cape Breton, has lived in Halifax, Ottawa, Edmonton and the Greater Toronto Area, and is thrilled to travel again to all parts of Canada.

Ryan Duggan is the Director of Safety & Compliance for The City of Toronto. Ryan has developed a comprehensive Fire & Life Safety Program Office that consolidates all Fire and Life Safety matters for 65 million square feet of City-owned buildings, spaces and critical infrastructure. Ryan has published the City's first Master Fire Program which identifies roles and responsibilities for fire and life safety and outlines a hybrid model for conducting ITM where internal staff conduct monthly ITM and contracted service partners conduct semi-annual+. Prior to joining the City in 2019, Ryan was the Manager of Fire Safety at the Toronto Transit Commission for over 13 years where he implemented an industry-leading fire safety program that provides oversight of all fire protection maintenance, code compliance and fire safety training for both employees and Toronto Fire Service related to firefighting in transit systems. Ryan is a graduate of the Fire Protection Engineering Technology program at Seneca College and lives in Dundas, Ontario.

Vince is currently the President of Ontario Municipal Fire Prevention Officers Association (OMFPOA).  He was first elected to the board of OMFPOA in 2018. Vince is involved with Fire Code enforcement, Building Code compliance for new construction, and Fire investigations.

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Vince is a retired Canadian Army Vehicle Technician Sergeant. He served with the Royal Canadian Electrical and Mechanical Engineers for 22 years.  After retiring Vince attended Durham College for their Fire and Life Safety Technician program. He graduated from this program with a perfect 5.0 GPA and was awarded the Durham College Medal as the highest-ranking graduate in any two-year post-secondary program.  After college he worked as a volunteer Fire Prevention Officer and then as a CFAA Fire Alarm Technician before being hired as a Fire Inspector with Richmond Hill Fire and Emergency Services.

Rick is a professional engineer who has been actively involved in the development of building and fire codes for many years.
 

Rick is the principal instructor for the BC Building Code Part 3 course at the British Columbia Institute of Technology since 2005. 
 

Currently, and since 2004, he sits on the Standing Committees on Fire Protection (2004-2020) and on Use and Egress (2020 – present) for the National Building and Fire Codes of Canada. 
 

An Assistant Fire Chief in the Community Safety Division of Vancouver’s fire department, Rick is responsible for the Public Education Division, for fire prevention inspections at the provincial lands at UBC and UEL, and for the development of the Vancouver Fire By-law, policies and procedures.

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For several years, he was a plan review and code specialist with the City of Vancouver Building Department where he also helped develop the Vancouver Building By-law. 

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Rick began his career in the private sector where he became an experienced fire sprinkler designer on commercial, residential, and heavy industrial projects.  He then became a fire protection and building code consultant, before his appointment to become the City of Surrey’s Fire Protection Engineer.

Manager, Building Equipment & Safety Systems, Environmental Hazardous Materials Remediation, Toronto Community Housing Corporation (TCHC)

TCHC is the largest social housing provider in Canada and the second largest in North America, second only to New York City Housing Authority. TCHC represents more than $9 billion in public assets and contains over 11,000,000 square meters of fire protected residential and commercial area.

As a leader of construction and maintenance teams, building off 15 years of utility infrastructure experience, Tim has spent the last 8 years managing the maintenance and upgrades of building safety systems across the entire TCHC portfolio.  Tim operates a results-oriented team with a track record of consistently delivering large capital work and continuously improving maintenance programs. 

Deputy Fire Chief Larry Cocco, Toronto Fire Services (TFS), manages the Community Risk Reduction (CRR) Division that is responsible for Fire Inspections and Enforcement, Fire Investigations, Public Education and Fire Protection Engineering within the City of Toronto; servicing more than three million residents, commuters and tourists. As part of the largest Canadian fire service, CRR conducts comprehensive inspections and investigations to analyze the unique characteristics of metropolitan community risks, utilizing evidence-based findings to develop optimal methods for risk management, formulate modernized public education, and consistently improve inspection and enforcement strategies. Larry has extensive experience in managing major fire incident investigations, as well as specializing in fire safety inspections and enforcement of the Ontario Fire Code.

Maria’s focus is on the development of codes and standards, the potential of Emerging Technologies, while maintaining resiliency, and reliability of Life Safety systems. 

Active in the Fire Life Safety and Security industry for over 25 years, Maria sits on several NFPA technical committees.  She is active with NEMA’s Life Safety, Security and Emergency Communications Section.   Maria is also active with SFPE serving as a member of the SFPE Editorial Board, Foundation Board of Governors, SFPE’s Tall Building Guide and Performance Based Design Guide Task Groups. She is a Past President of the MD-DC-VA chapter of AFAA.  

When not working on life safety issues, can be found behind a camera lens or on the soccer pitch. A graduate of Wellesley College, Maria holds NICET IV in Fire Alarm and CFPS certifications. She resides in Kensington, MD.

Stephen Ames is the Canadian Technical Harmonization Committee (THC) Co-Chair for UL/ULC fire standards, and the Co-Chair of the THC initiating fire detection device standards.

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Stephen brings extensive experience in the fire systems industry. Stephen joined System Sensor (a Honeywell brand) in 1998 as the National OEM Sales Manager and moved into the role of Director of Sales for Canada and Latin America from 2005 to 2008, Managing Director of System Sensor Canada from 2008 to 2018 and was most recently the OEM Fire Sales Leader for North America before retiring in June 2023. Prior to joining System Sensor Stephen had 15 years of experience at Engineering Systems Distributor’s and Manufacturer's in the fire alarm systems business, designing systems, consulting and managing people.

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Stephen obtained his certification in the Electrical Technology Program at Ryerson Polytechnic Institute in 1983 and completed the CFAA Registered Technician courses in 1985. Stephen is a past president of the Canadian Fire Alarm Association and currently serves as a director and chair of the CFAA governance committee.

Benjamin Ditch is a Principle Research Engineer at FM Global and has an M.S. in Fire Protection Engineering from Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Worcester MA, USA. 

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Mr. Ditch is the Technical Team Leader of the Large-Scale Fires Team with 23 years of experience in fire hazard analysis and specialty fire protection system design. 

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He is responsible for the development and implementation of large-scale testing, including specialty hazards such as ignitable liquids, non-standard storage, and emerging technologies. Mr. Ditch’s current research interests include protection for automatic storage and retrieval systems, energy storage systems, and lithium ion batteries.

Brent Brooks is an Acting District Chief for the Toronto Fire Services with 29 years of service. Brent's High Rise Unit assignment has enabled him to enhance Toronto's High-Rise Operations through innovative research and development. Brent's Community of Practice has a wide reach, providing lectures and hands-on training throughout Ontario, Canada, and internationally. He aims to educate the next generation of firefighters on best practices for occupant survival and firefighter safety in High-Rise firefighting. Brent is a proponent of best practices in the fire service and has specialized in high-rise firefighting. He presently serves on various committees national and international.

William Kuffner is a Fire Protection Engineer, specializing in the application of fire protection sciences to the built environment to create performance design solutions for unique fire protection challenges. His areas of expertise include Fire Modeling, Fire Dynamics, Human Behavior in Fires and Design for Fire Resistance.

William chairs the Standing Committee on Use and Egress that reports to the Canadian Board for Harmonized Construction Codes, the technical body that is responsible for writing the National Building and Fire codes. He works closely with the authorities having jurisdiction to negotiate and seek approval for a wide variety of issues related to regulatory compliance.

Peter is the General Manager of SSi Fire Solutions, a Division of SSi Canada, which Distributes and Manufactures Aerosol Suppression Products and brings almost 25 years in the Fire Protection Industry. Peter has also been a Volunteer FireFighter for over 30 years and currently serves as a Captain/Training Officer. He has been active in Fire Dynamics Research and Instruction into the ways Fire behaviour has changed with new construction and materials.

In addition, Peter has been active as a volunteer with many Associations across Canada as a past Board Member and Committee Chair with the Canadian Fire Alarm Association as well as serving as its Executive Director and currently is President of the National Capital Region Chapter. He sits on the Board of the Canadian Fire Safety Association as its Treasurer as well as being a member of the Ontario Fire Training Officers Association.

Peter has been active in research into methods to control and extinguish fires involving Lithium Ion Batteries and other Battery Storage Enclosures and is a member of the Technical Committee creating the new UL/ULC S1487 for Battery Containment Enclosures as well as being a member of Technical Committee 300 which covers Special Extinguishing Systems. He is also a member of NFPA 2010, Fixed Aerosol Extinguishing Systems.

Melinda Amador, P. Eng., M.A.Sc., is a Project Engineer at CodeNext Inc., in Toronto, Ontario. Melinda has 16 years of experience in the practice of fire protection and life safety consulting for Building and Fire Code compliance. Melinda's industrial project experience includes the development of compliance solutions for dangerous goods hazards in laboratories, cannabis extraction, pharmaceutical, specialty beverage, and bulk distribution and warehousing applications. For the past 3 years, Melinda has been engaged in the development of technical guides relating to cannabis safety with ULC and with ISO. Melinda is the current Chair of the new standard, NFPA 420, "Standard on Fire Protection of Cannabis Growing and Processing Facilities".

Tim Renaud is the Western Canadian Fire Alarm Regional Sales Manager at Honeywell | Notifier and since 2015 has worked with Authorized Notifier distributors to get solutions for End Users and Engineers in his territory of Western Canada and the Arctic. He is also now the Senior Technical Sales Rep for Canada and serves as the facilitator for all Notifier technical committees in Canada.

Tim has worked in various technical roles throughout his career in telecommunications and fire alarm. After spending over a decade as a RFPT (Registered Fire Protection Technician) in the Vancouver area, Tim moved into project management and sales at a Notifier distributor and then found the opportunity to move into this current role as an advocate and line of communications for all Notifier clients to Honeywell and to represent Notifier out to his territory. Tim’s strength in communication and negotiation has helped to garner wins for Notifier and for his distributors all over Western Canada.

Tim has been focusing on teaching in his role at Notifier and truly believes that sales growth comes from education of engineers, end users and distribution channel partners in product, design and smart implementation of advanced technologies.

Eduardo is a Professional Materials and Metallurgical Engineer with 25 years of experience in forensic engineering investigations and failure analysis. He has led over 1,500 forensic and failure investigations and specializes in a variety of equipment, components and industrial products, including Plumbing and Mechanical Systems, HVAC Systems, Fire Sprinkler Systems, Polymer Pipe Failures, Product Liability, Fuel Oil Installations, Personal Injury resulting from Mechanical Failures and Static Equipment in Oil and Gas.

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Eduardo has held leadership positions in technical groups for the materials engineering community as well as with the Canadian Standards Association where he is currently a member in one of the technical committees. He is currently a member of the Professional Engineers of Ontario (PEO), ASM International, National Association of Corrosion Engineers (NACE) and the National Association of Subrogation Professionals (NASP).