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Andrew is passionate about disaster management and mobilising communities as first responders. He joined the NSW State Emergency Service (NSW SES) in 2010 as a disaster volunteer, supporting communities across the state during significant floods, storms and bushfires.
In 2014, Andrew took on a paid role to implement a new model for flexible volunteering, which led to the growth of the NSW SES volunteer workforce by 30%. Andrew has since held both senior corporate and operational roles with the NSW SES, the National Emergency Management Agency and most recently he led a state Review of Emergency Volunteering within the NSW Premier’s Department in 2023. Operationally, he has coordinated spontaneous volunteers in response to significant and catastrophic disasters.
Andrew holds a Bachelor of Civil Engineering with Honours, Bachelor of Commerce, Masters in Disaster Preparedness and Reconstruction and a Graduate Certificate in Disaster Risk Reduction.Andrew is currently a Senior Manager within the NSW SES Flood Rescue team leading work to enhance the agency’s capability to respond to significant flood events.
Andrew is a 2024 Churchill Fellow and is travelling the world to better understand spontaneous volunteers during disasters. Andrew is the co-host of Australia's leading disaster podcast - Me, Myself & Disaster.
In 2022, Australia experienced some of the worst flooding in recorded history, and the NSW State Emergency Service responded to thousands of flood rescues. Since the flood, the NSW SES has led a multi-agency approach to building flood rescue capability, with new purpose built vehicles, vessels, systems, coordination mechanisms and trained operators. As climate change leads and a growing population exposes more of the community to the risk of flooding, the state of NSW is better prepared.
During this presentation, we will share lessons for other nations on the process of building a flood rescue capability, the types of flooding experienced in Australia, lessons learned from operational response, and training and maintaining a volunteer rescue workforce.