Our trainers love what they do. Add that to their subject knowledge and industry experience and you’ve got people who make learning fun, interesting and relevant.

Tom Darrington – Lead Trainer

Tom has over 30 years’ experience in the hazardous areas electrical field and another 10 as a trainer. He is well respected throughout the industry for his unique ability to transfer his vast knowledge effectively to a wide variety of audiences. Tom is equally at home presenting to the plant manager as to the operations and maintenance staff, and tailors the delivery and the content to ensure it is relevant to the group. He also holds a Victorian H-Class Inspector’s licence, allowing him to carry out statutory inspections in Victoria .

Robert Langton – Trainer

Rob realised some years ago that Liverpool has rubbish weather, so he emigrated to Australia with his family and now calls Brisbane home.  He still has the accent, but since arriving he’s added a Queensland electrical licence and hazardous area installation auditor qualifications and over 10 years of Australian experience to his already impressive CV.  Rob brings a unique perspective to his training, having worked extensively under the ATEX directives in Europe as well as under the AS/NZS/IEC regime in the southern hemisphere.

Paul Brooke – Trainer

“Brookie” hails from New Zealand, but has been living over this side of the ditch for long enough that he’s almost learned how to pronounce his vowels properly. (He’s still rusted on to the All Blacks, of course.) Along the way he has become an accredited hazardous area installation auditor in Queensland and amassed a significant body of work as a hazardous area engineering consultant. Now in semi-retirement, we still occasionally manage to get Paul into a classroom where he enjoys passing on some of his experience to others.

Gareth Talamini – Managing Director

Gareth is a semi-reformed electrical engineer – an engineer who eventually realised that he much prefers teaching to actually doing engineering. This took some time to happen though, and before it did he worked on a number of large engineering projects including hazardous areas both in Australia and internationally, so he brings the benefit of these years of experience to his course development and delivery for Extend. Gareth also sits on Standards Australia committee MS-066– Competencies for working with electrical equipment for hazardous areas.

Cris Kerrison – Director

Cris is still an engineer, but periodically enjoys passing on some of his vast knowledge and experience in the hazardous area electrical field. Cris is one of Australia’s foremost authorities on hazardous areas and explosion protection and regularly presents at conferences and events on the subject as well as delivering training courses for Extend. He is also a member of Standards Australia committee EL-014 – Electrical Installations for Explosive Atmospheres.