Gareth Collett CBE, CEng, MSc, BSc (Hons), MCGI

Programme Manager for OME Apprenticeships and senior lecturer on high hazard employment.

Gareth Collett is a retired British Army Brigadier General who specialised in counter-terrorist bomb disposal. He was appointed CBE in 2013 as the head of the UK’s bomb disposal profession and principal proponent for the safeguarding of multinational EOD operations worldwide. Gareth is a world leading expert on countering improvised explosive devices (C-IED), blast mitigation and post-blast forensics, having recently completed formal technical reports on Mariupol Theatre, the Beirut Port disaster and the impact on the environment should a fuel-air explosion occur aboard the Fuel-Storage and Offloading tanker Safer in Yemen. Gareth is a fluent Arabic speaker having conducted numerous diplomatic roles in the Middle East.

Academically, Gareth focuses on publications concerning home-made explosives (HME), explosive chemical precursors, humanitarian demining, humanitarian forensic action and post-blast forensics. He has written three books relating to IED disposal good practice, the hazards associated with HME in humanitarian demining, and Explosive Ordnance Risk Education for children and vulnerable adults.

In his spare time, Gareth is a pro-bono Board Member of two International Victim Assistance Charities, an advisor to Action on Armed Violence (AOAV), a senior member of the UK’s Civilian Stabilisation Group and a Chief Technical Advisor to the United Nations.

• Fellow of the Institute of Explosives Engineers
• Senior Member Civilian Stabilisation Group
• Board Member Felix Fund Bomb Disposal Charity
• Ambassador REVIVE – Reduce Explosive Violence
• Increase Victim Empowerment
• Senior Advisor – Disaster Relief

Teaching areas focus on high risk environments, explosive ordnance and human factors. Modules specifically delivered are: Principles of Ordnance, Munitions and Explosives (OME); Scientific Principles of OME; Technical Authoring; Nuclear Safety; and Human Factors in High Hazard Environments.

Currently reading a PhD in the regulation of explosive chemical precursors, which has been taken forwards by the United Nations as a global mitigation initiative.

• Private consultant relating to war crimes
• Humanitarian demining
• Humanitarian forensics
• Risk and risk management
• Human factors
• Blast and blast mitigation
• Explosive ordnance engineering

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