The Conformance Team

Anna Whatley

Anna has supported Nick with the business since the company was founded. She has a degree in Hotel and Catering Management, a Masters in Tourism Management and some business and teaching experience. Anna has an overview of all financial, personnel and facility matters and assists the management team with business decisions, she will also make lunch and lovely cakes if you visit.

Nick Williams

Nick set Conformance up in 1993 having been working for a UK domestic appliance manufacturer when CE marking first became mandatory in the early 1990’s. He has an honours degree in Physics and Electronics. His knowledge extends across a broad range of directives and includes machinery, electrical safety, EMC, medical devices and consumer goods. He’s particularly good at identifying the requirements for novel products on the margins of the directives, and has an unrivalled understanding of the political and strategic issues arising from the CE marking directives.

Michael Elsworth

Michael joined Conformance in 2022. Since graduating with a First Class Honours degree in Mechanical Engineering, Michael gained experience as a Design Engineer and Project Coordinator before moving into compliance management within the food processing industry. Certified by TUV NORD as a Machinery Safety Expert, he specialises in the Machinery Directive.

Mark Wilson

Mark is a mechanical engineer with many years’ experience of certification, testing and auditing of electrical and mechanical products, Prior to joining Conformance he worked at an ATEX Notified Body. He is a member of the EXL/31 Standards committee and has an in depth knowledge of the nuances of the conformity assessment process. He joined Conformance in the summer of 2021, specialising in electrical and electronic products.

Bob Scholfield

Henry Foxhall

Stephen Kimber

Stephen has over 36 years experience in the office equipment industry and has worked with EU directives and standards for a major Japanese printer company, ensuring compliance for their products. He is also a Trainer and an Auditor to ISO14001. He was one of the architects of the EU Imaging Equipment Voluntary Agreement, which is an alternative to direct legislation under the Eco Design Directive (ErP). He specialises in LVD, EMC, RoHS, WEEE, REACH and, more recently, Personal Protective Equipment (PPE).

Chris Wordley

Chris specialises in electrical and electronic products. He came across CE marking when working as an engineer designing electronic and electrical controls for the commercial refrigeration industry, and then chose to specialise in the regulatory side of engineering for consumer electronics products. At Conformance Chris focuses on the Low Voltage Directive, Radio Equipment Directive, EMC Directive, Eco-design Directive, Restriction of Hazardous Substances (RoHS) Directive, Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Directive and related areas. Chris has also helped develop a new Ecodesign standard and investigated Li battery safety.

Steven Jackson

Steve is a mechanical & electrical engineering honours graduate with an M.Sc. in Industrial Engineering. At Conformance, Steven specialises in the Machinery Directive, safety of control systems and the work equipment regulations. He has thirty years of engineering experience including work in the power generation and automotive sectors, focusing on machine reliability, component failure and vibration and acoustic research testing. Within the machine tool industry, his roles have included machine performance improvement and, in previously working for a Machinery Directive Notified Body, machinery compliance.

Glenn Moffat

Glenn has an Honours degree in Mechanical Engineering and has worked in the test and inspection industry since 1989. He has worked for test houses including BSI, SGS AND TUV Rheinland but has also worked as a consultant for machinery safety for equipment suppliers. He has been a Notified Body signatory under the Machinery Directive and has managed an electrical laboratory and a Machinery safety testing department including the creation and update of the quality system for UKAS accreditation. He holds a NEBOSH General Certificate. Glenn’s background includes electrical safety testing in a laboratory and on-site safety testing of electrical equipment and machinery.

Charlotte Bond

Charlotte joined Confiormance in 2012. Initially in sales and marketing, she currently works part-time as our toy safety expert, helping the many home toy-makers to get their toys through the CE marking process. In addition to toy safety, Charlotte manages our subscription product services.

Andy Davis

Andy has over 12 years experience in the electrical equipment industry having worked at BSI which also included being a member of an IEC technical committee for lighting, which has provided him with vast knowledge of lighting and electrical appliances across Domestic, Commercial and Industrial sectors. He also worked offshore as a Commissioning Engineer for seven years which took him all over the world, including large-scale, land-based sectors. At Conformance Andy focuses on electrical and electronic products which includes the Low Voltage Directive, Electromagnetic Compatibility Directive, Machinery Directive, Radio Equipment Directive and Restriction of Hazardous Substances (RoHS). 

Patrick Wood

Patrick joined Conformance in 2024 after studying Mechanical Engineering at the University of Sheffield. As a Machinery Safety Consultant, he supports clients with CE and UKCA marking, carrying out assessments against relevant directives and standards. His work includes reviewing a wide range of industrial equipment, identifying safety issues, and contributing to technical documentation and compliance reports.

James Marsden

James joined Conformance in 2025 following his studies from the University of Sheffield, where he obtained a Masters degree in Chemical Engineering. During his time he did a placement year working as a research project engineer. He has joined Conformance as a consultant specialising in the ATEX world. The work he partakes in include a variety of different sectors which gives him a vast knowledge base. Ultimately allowing him to produce technical documentation, safety forms and compliance reports for customers.

Clare Harley

Clare joined Conformance in 2010, and currently works part-time specialising in GPSR and toy safety.  Over the years her roles have included handling enquiries, marketing and administration. Clare has also helped to produce some of our Self-Certification packs.

Jim Woodall

Jim focuses on Machinery Directive requirements, Noise Emissions Directive requirements, creating Technical Files, creating and updating instruction manuals and requirements for markings.  Jim joined the company in November 2006 after completing a PhD in Physics at UMIST in Manchester. Since joining Conformance Jim has gained extensive knowledge and experience across a spectrum of products which includes earth-moving machinery, power generation and food manufacturing.

Shan Peters

Shan joined Conformance in 2022 as our Receptionist and Sales Administrator. She is the first point of contact for the business, answering the phones and handling enquiries and quotes for the consultants. Shan manages the orders that are placed via our webshop and will help with any queries that may arise, she also assists Sue with the commercial side of the business, helping with job activation and invoicing. She has 20 years experience as a Sales Administrator in the chemical industry, dealing with enquiries, orders and customer account management.

Freya Williams

Freya runs our sister company Authorised Representative Service from Dublin, Ireland. Her role includes managing clients and developing the company that started in 2019. She has a degree in Photography from Falmouth University.

Sarah Lewis

Sarah recently joined Conformance, and currently works for the Managing Director Nick as his PA. Sarah’s background is within the legal sector, as she is a qualified solicitor (now non-practising).   Sarah brings to her role at Conformance the ability to deal with a challenging and busy workload, together with experience of dealing with clients and fellow professionals to manage expectations without compromising on quality.   

Lesley Ayers

Lesley is our Financial Controller. Her degrees in Applied Mathematics initially took her into data analysis and IT but at Conformance she is responsible for payroll, cashflow, management accocounting and data analysis.

Ilona Piedaniel

Ilona is our Sales and Marketing Executive.  Her role is to manage website development and social media interactions and assist with sales administration. Ilona also assists the company consultants with organisation and preparation for training and and seminar. She graduated from university with a degree in Psychology and has a background in customer services.

Sue Herbert

Sue is our Office Manager and deals with company administration and job management. Sue is the longest-standing member of staff at Conformance and is a knowledgeable contact point helping customers with commercial set up and job progress.

Colin Pimley

Colin is a highly experienced mechanical engineer and product conformity assessment professional with over 25 years’ experience in the power generation and pressure equipment sectors. Originally working on pressure part design of large utility steam generators, more recently he held senior technical management positions with two leading global conformity assessment bodies and has gained a broad knowledge of EU product conformity directives and regulations in the pressure equipment, machinery and construction sectors. Colin's work at Conformance is mostly related to pressure equipment.

David Payne

David has a degree in Wood Science. He has worked for the BM TRADA Group on conformity assessments of products for the Construction Products Regulation, both to harmonised European standards and European Technical Approvals. He's also an expert on applying the international standards for the management of test labs and certification bodies. In his work for Conformance he is most often to be found helping construction products manufacturers to understand and apply the requirements for Initial Type Testing (ITT) and Factory Production Control (FPC) demanded by the Regulation and its associated standards.

John Cotman

John is an independent specialist who assists us in electrical appliance and machinery assessment. John had seven years experience as a manager for a leading international test house. He also gained valuable experience as Quality Manager in the lighting industry, which has also provided him with a thorough understanding of the intricacies of importing electrical equipment into the EU and UK.