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.

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 & 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.

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 Stanadrds committee and has an in depth knoweledge of the nuances of the conformity assessment process. He joined Conformance in the summer of 2021, specialising in electrical and electronic products.

Tom Chaldecott

Tom joined Conformance in 2021 and specialises in the Machinery Directive. He is a Mechanical Engineering Masters graduate with 6 years’ experience delivering sensing technology projects. Previously he managed an engineering team and H&S systems within a scale-up business where he was part of the senior leadership team. He has been recognised by Business Insider as “100 People Transforming Business”.

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.

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 enquires 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 is our Sales and Marketing Assistant, She has a degree in Photography from Falmouth University and is currently learning British Sign Language. Freya runs the day to day of our sister company Authorised Representative Service and is involved in organising our marketing.

Lesley Ayers

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.