Global Road Deaths This Year = 257,556

Executive Committee

Chair of WRO, Paul Schroeder is an experienced manager with a demonstrated history of working in the government administration field. Skilled in government, emergency services, public safety, emergency management and leadership. He leads as the General Director of the Luxembourg Fire & Rescue Corps (Corps grand-ducal d'incendie et de secours - CGDIS), 800 full-time and 4000 volunteer staff in the delivery of rescue and emergency services for the Grand-Duchy of Luxembourg. Paul is one of the main architects of the overarching reform of the Luxembourg rescue services that started in 2009. In charge, at that time, of the Rescue services department within the Ministry of Interior, Paul steered the reform process by achieving multi-stakeholder consensus on major transformational issues. Prior to his appointment as Director of the Luxembourg rescue services, Paul was the General Coordinator of the Ministry of Interior where he officiated as a political and legal advisor of the Minister of Interior. Paul has a Master degree in crisis management from Institut national des hautes études de la sécurité et de la justice in Paris, a Master degree in mediation from Kurt Bösch Institute, Switzerland, as well as a LL.M in public international law from Leiden University, The Netherlands. He studied four years administrative law and public international law in Aix-en-Provence, France. Paul Schroeder started his career as a volunteer firefighter and rescue worker in 1985. He was deputy fire chief of the volunteer fire brigade of Junglinster from 2000 to 2014, deputy chief of the civil protection unit of Junglinster from 1998 to 2007 and chief of the same unit from 2007 to 2008 until his appointment at the Ministry of Interior. In 2006 he organized the first Rescue Challenge in Luxembourg and co-founded the Luxembourg Rescue Organisation (LRO) in 2007 which he chaired from its foundation until 2018. He has been Vice-Chair of the WRO since October 2015.

Vice Chair of WRO, Michael Gahan is a Senior Assistant Chief Fire Officer with Wicklow County Fire Service, Ireland. Based at the Headquarters Station in Bray, Co. Wicklow, Michael has responsibility for the Strategic Management and Operational activities of the service, reporting to the Chief Fire Officer.He has over 20 years Managerial, Technical and Operational experience and provides strategic leadership and support to each of the brigades across the county. Other responsibilities include the safety, health and welfare of staff; the Management of Capital and Expenditure budgets; the Development and Co-ordination of the Training Centre and Training Programmes to meet identified needs of the service.He has also being involved in European Civil Protection for a number of years, he is an operational officer within his brigade rostered on call to respond and manage incidents while on duty. Michael started in the service as a retained fire-fighter in 2001 and is now a brigade instructor in a number of disciplines. He developed a keen interest in the challenge concept, beginning in 2005 when competing with Carlow Fire and Rescue Service in Northern Ireland and Scotland and attended his first World Rescue Challenge in South Africa in 2006. He went on to join Rescue Organisation Ireland in 2008 and is currently their Director of Operations; Michael became the WRO Head Assessor in 2015 having assessed at all previous World Rescue Challenges since 2010.Michael is committed to the role as Vice Chair of WRO and is looking forward to help implement the strategic business plan, specifically overseeing the implementation of updated organisational structure, implementing an equality process and providing support to Executive and Member Organisations.

Secretary of WRO, Cameron Black served as an operational officer within Strathclyde Fire and Rescue SFR and the Scottish Fire & Rescue Service SFRS. During his 37 years as a uniformed officer he undertook a number of significant roles some of which included a secondment to Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of the Fire Service to look at, and report on, Fairness and Equality within the Fire Services in Scotland, he was asked to set up RTC Training Development within SFR and was project manager for the new SFR training centre complex. As a senior officer cameron attended many significant incidents including transport incidents such as RTC’s, aircraft and ships and undertook operational roles such as Incident Commander, Operations Commander, HazMat Officer, Operational Review and H&S Officer. In 1996, Cameron joined, what is now, the United Kingdom Rescue Organisation UKRO where he became a national and international assessor. He developed and lead the UKRO's International Development Programme IDP and the UKRO’s Organisational Development, Marketing and Communications Directorate, he is now a Trustee on the UKRO Board and now the Director of UKRO Global. In 1999 Cameron attended the inaugural meeting of what is now the WRO and was appointed Secretary of the then World Council of Rescue Organisations in 2000, now the WRO. In 2005 he was released by SFR to work fulltime with the WRO, and UKRO to help build capacity within both organisations. During this time, he was able to develop partnerships for the WRO with the World Health Organisation WHO and establish the WRO as an executive member of the Global Road Safety Partnership GRSP. Cameron has assisted the WHO with their Pre-Hospital Trauma Care Systems Programme. Cameron undertook preparatory work for the WRO to become a member of the United Nations Road Safety Collaboration UNRSC. Cameron along with colleagues within the WRO attends GRSP and UNRSC meetings in promotion of the WRO’s work to develop first responders in immediate post-crash care and rescue. He has extensive international development experience work in Romania, Poland, South Africa, Russian Federation, Brazil, Moldova and the Czech Republic, and recently coordinated WRO project development project work in Dubai. As the WRO Secretary Cameron provides support to all WRO member organisations, the WRO Executive of which he is a member, the WRO Committee and World Rescue Organisation hosts.

WRO Treasurer -Declan Cassidy joined the Meath County Fire and Rescue Service in February 1999 and currently still serving in the same brigade. Having a served time in the automotive industry and a keen interest in cars since a young age, it was an easy transition to the extrication element of brigade response to Road Traffic Collisions. The introduction of Rescue Organisation Ireland in 2008 provided a platform to develop those skills and enhance the training received within the brigade which led to performing in challenges right up to Joining the ROI committee and Executive in November 2010.In the role of sub-station officer Declan became an RTCI completing both a National course in Ireland and an RTCI course in the Fire Service College, in Moreton-in-Marsh, UK. The position on the ROI executive made a duel role within the ROI as he already had begun as an ROI assessor later becoming a WRO assessor following the WRC 2010 in Cork, Ireland. Having progressed in the field of WRO assessor, in 2012 at the WRC in London, Declan was elected to the position of WRO treasurer for the one year interim period until being re-elected at WRC 2013 in Florida for the allocated two year period, subsequent re-elections in 2015, 2017 and 2019 have seen Declan continue in the role and is due for election at WRC 2021. Declan also held the treasurer Role in the ROI from 2010 until 2018 when he became what is his current ROI Executive role, ROI Secretary. Aside from the day to day management of the WRO account, Declan also assists in other functional areas of the executive alongside fellow WRO executive members. Including participation in meeting and liaising with,  Global Road Safety Partnership GRSP, United Nations Road Safety Collaboration UNRSC International Road Victims Partnership IRVP and Renault tertiary safety to mention some. Once asked what he would see as his legacy would be in the WRO, Declan replied “ Simply this, that the WRO is still going when I step away and has remained a progressive and inclusive organisation”

Director of Operations, Kevin Lennon served as a operational officer within the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service for 30 years. He is experienced in RTC and Trauma and specialised in CBRNE and HazMat incidents and as a senior commander was head of civil contingencies. In 2010 he took up the role of UKRO Head Assessor for all rescue disciplines (Extrication, Trauma, Rope, Water and USAR). He became a Trustee of the UKRO Board and Director of Rescue Challenges and has recently moved to Deputy Director of UKRO Global.  He was the International Development Programme (IDP) lead for Romania and assisting their development which culminated in running the WRC 2017.  He started his WRO journey as a shadow assessor at the WRC 2000 in Edinburgh and moved on to be the WRO Head Assessor in 2014. In 2015 he was appointed as WRO Director of Operations.  Kevin is a qualified assessor and verifier and re-qualified in Internal Monitoring and Maintenance of Quality of Workplace Assessment. He has a BSc in Accounting and Finance and a BSc in Economics and has a Professional Development Award in Risk Management. He is also a  qualified Public Service Improvement Framework (PSIF) assessor and a European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM) assessor and regularly assess peer to peer external assessments for other organisations as part of a pool of teams from a variety of countries.  Kevin is dedicated to advancing professional rescue globally.

 

Director of Education and Development, Yannick Auloy is a professional firefighter lieutenant-colonel. He is head of the territorial pole and commands 16 fire and rescue brigades  in the Charente-Maritime department in France. A firefighter since 1987, from the age of 16, he was first a volunteer firefighter before becoming a professional. He has been an officer since 1994 and directly commanded several operational units. He got involved in training very early on, in 1990, then became a road rescue trainer in 1995. He has commanded numerous relief operations, including several during large-scale natural disasters. Member of a working group on road rescue within the national federation of firefighters of France, he participates in the improvement of road rescue techniques in France. In 2015, he became the French representative of the World Rescue Organization and developed the competition in France by organizing the first French challenge in 2016 in La Rochelle then the world rescue challenge in 2019 also in La Rochelle. He is responsible for the construction and development of the training center for firefighters in his department from 2013 to 2020. More than 50 French and European fire services will come to train in road rescue during this period. He is a trainer at the national school for firefighting officers in France and at the university to prepare future officers