Martin Cottam

Martin is an experienced business leader specialising in the management of safety in major hazard industries, occupational health and safety (OHS), quality management, and technical governance. With over 40 years’ experience in engineering risk management, he has particular expertise in governance, assurance and improvement of business processes, across a wide range of sectors, and uses this to provide independent safety and quality consultancy services covering strategy, governance and implementation. This has most recently included a review of safety governance and incident investigation for one of the UK’s largest transport providers, and a review of safety governance of one of the largest projects in the UK rail sector.

Martin spent much of his career at Lloyd’s Register, one of the world’s leading providers of professional services for engineering and technology, spending his last six years there as Group Technical Assurance and Quality Director, with overall responsibility for quality management and technical governance across the organisation.

Martin has contributed to the development of many international standards in the fields of OHS, conformity assessment, and Asset Management. He chaired the International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO) Technical Committee for OHS management (ISO/TC 283) from its formation in 2018 until April 2025, winning ISO’s prestigious “Lawrence D Eicher” award in 2022 for leadership and innovation, recognizing the significant contribution and superior performance of the committee in the development of International Standards. He was awarded the BSI Wolfe Barry medal in 2024 – a “lifetime achievement” award recognising his 27-year contribution to national and international standards development.