Bios

Benoit Clair, Chairman
Clair is an engineer, with a complementary education in management. After 13 years in the industry, he joined CNPP in 1986 and became managing director in 1990. He has been appointed treasurer of AFNOR, the French standardization body, since 1999. In April 2000, he was elected chairman of EFSG, European group of Certification bodies in fire and security, working for mutual recognition of testing and certification in Europe. He is also Chair of the CFPA International and member of the prevention sub-committee of the European insurers Committee (CEA)

Art Cote, Vice Chairman
Mr. Cote is former Executive Vice President and Chief Engineer at the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA). He served as editor-in-chief of the 19th and 20th edition of the Fire Protection Handbook; co-author of the 2nd edition of Principles of Fire Protection; and editor-in-chief of the 1st edition of Fundamentals of Fire Protection. He has over 35 years experience as a fire protection engineer and prior to joining NFPA in 1977, he held positions of vice president and chief engineer for an automatic sprinkler contracting company; supervising engineer in the engineering and loss control division of a major insurance company; and fire inspector for a fire insurance rating bureau. Mr. Cote presently serves as Vice Chair of the American National Standards Institute (ANSI); was past President of the Society of Fire Protection Engineers (SFPE). He is a Fellow of the Society of Fire Protection Engineers; and Vice Chair of CFPA-I.

Mr. Cote received his Bachelor of Science Degree in Fire Protection Engineering from the University of Maryland and holds a Professional Engineering license in fire protection in the State of Pennsylvania.

Hubert Ruegg, Treasurer
Mr. Ruegg is General Manager of Swiss Institute for the Promotion of Safety & Security (Institute of Safety & Security) Zürich Switzerland. The Swiss Institute of Safety & Security is a service organization for risk management and corporate safety and security and works with the business world, insurance companies and the authorities for the purpose of loss prevention. Prior to joining the Institute in 1995, he was employed from 1986 to 1991 at CIBA-GEIGY AG and from 1991 to 1994 at GURIT-ESSEX AG with the following responsibilities: Member of the Executive Committee, Group Manufacturing Director of 250 employees in Switzerland, France, England, Spain and South Africa. Mr. Ruegg received a Masters Degree in Chemistry at Technical High School ETH, Zürich in 1983 and proceeded to obtain his PhD in 1986 with his doctoral thesis in Metalorganic Chemistry. In 2002, Mr. Ruegg was appointed Chairman of CFPA Europe and Treasurer of CFPA-I

Hatem Ezzat Kheir, Director
General Manager of Kheir Group -- Graduated From Cairo University as a Mechanical Engineer on 1981 and worked one year in the Mechanical Engineering Department at Mansoura University.  He then joined a private sector company in Egypt.  He worked in Saudi Arabia from 1984 until 1989, returning back to Egypt as Area Manager for Peerless Pump Co. USA. From 1993 to the present, he serves as their agent in Africa.

Immediate Past President of the Malaysian Fire Protection Association, Member of the National Fire Protection Association USA, Fire Protection Association UK, The Institution of Fire Engineers (UK) Malaysia Branch, Life Member of the American Institute of Management, Past President & Committee Members of many other Non Government Organisations in Malaysia. He now serves as one of the three Board of Directors of CFPA-International and Treasurer of CFPA-Asia.