Steve Couling of Versalift elected IPAF president

May 16, 2013 – Steve Couling, managing director of Time-Versalift,
was elected as the new president of the International Powered Access Federation
at the IPAF annual general meeting on March 26 in Miami. He succeeds Wayne
Lawson of JLG. Andy Studdert, chairman and CEO of NES Rentals,
was elected deputy president. Two new members were elected to the IPAF board of directors: Brad
Boehler, president of Skyjack, and Nick Selley, group business development
director of AFI-Uplift.

At the handover of the IPAF presidency (left to right): Outgoing IPAF president Wayne Lawson of JLG, new IPAF president Steve Couling of Versalift and IPAF CEO Tim Whiteman.

Couling outlined three goals for his two-year
term as IPAF president: specialist training for the vehicle-mounted sector,
online training programmes, and the creation of more IPAF country councils to
enable regional forums for discussion and a local focus on issues important to
those regions.

“The vehicle-mounted platform sector has further to
go than most,” he noted. “There is still a far too relaxed approach to
specialist training needs in some regions. This is an area that I will be
personally trying to address during my term
as president.”

With IPAF’s recent launch of an eLearning module as part of
the AWPT operator training programme in the US and Canada, Couling said that
this is an exciting arena that IPAF needs to be in from the outset: “There are
clear opportunities for IPAF
to use this medium to reach even the most reluctant of regions to accept and
adopt safer working practices and professional training programmes.”

In his incoming president’s address, Couling
also paid tribute to outgoing IPAF president Wayne Lawson: “Wayne has been at
the helm of the IPAF Board during a challenging period for IPAF and has been a
very dedicated and professional chairman. A very hard act to follow!”

Steve Couling began his career in powered access in
1993, joining Simon Engineering. He initially sold Simon “Snorkel” platforms to
fire brigades across Europe, then became general sales manager for Simon’s
fire, utility and self-propelled business. In 1998, he moved to one of the “big
three” self-propelled machine manufacturers at the time, UpRight, and became
vice-president of sales and marketing for Europe, Africa and the Middle East
in 2002. In 2005, he returned to the vehicle-mounted side of the access
industry and became managing director of TIME-Versalift based in the UK. He has
been involved with IPAF since his early days at Simon Engineering as an active
member of the IPAF Council and joined the IPAF Board of Directors five years
ago.

Launching IPAF’s 30th anniversary celebrations, Couling said, “I intend to re-define our original core objectives to all
members and to remind everyone that IPAF is a not-for-profit organisation. The
original objectives of IPAF are still true and they still hold water: We want
to ensure our industry is safe, safe for all users of powered access equipment.
I look forward to working with IPAF CEO Tim Whiteman and the IPAF staff, and
thank them for their hard work and loyalty.
Without them, there is no IPAF.”

Related Link
www.ipaf.org