Mr. Simon Russett

Simon Russett is a European Engineer and a Chartered Engineer with over 37 years of experience since 1986 in Vertical Transportation as a Lift and Escalator Technical Expert. He holds a Master of Science postgraduate degree in Lift Engineering awarded by Northampton University. He is a fellow of the Chartered Instituted of Building Services Engineers and the Institute of Engineering and Technology. He is a member of the Council for Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat, the British Council for Offices and the Society of Construction Law. 

Simon served a technical apprenticeship with an international lift company in the late 1980’s and since 1991 has been a Consulting Engineer. He founded the Hoare Lea Vertical Transportation Group in 2002.

He provides specialist technical expertise in all aspects of lift and escalator design, for all building types, from concept to completion, enabling clients to achieve coordinated site wide integrated VT strategies. He has worked on many interesting projects with some of the best engineers in the industry, throughout the UK, Europe, Asia, the Middle East and the USA. Simon has undertaken projects in most sectors including commercial offices, transport, residential, industrial, education, healthcare, retail, leisure, sports and hotels. He has designed VT systems for many international complex and high-rise projects.

He has been instructed to provide technical expert advice in VT disputes, has prepared advisory reports CPR 35 ready. Is involved with alternative dispute resolution including arbitration, mediation and adjudication, he has attending court proceedings providing evidence and been cross examined.

Simon is a past Chairman of the Chartered Institute of Building Service Engineers (CIBSE) Lifts Group. He was a member of the steering group and a revision author for the 2005, 2010, 2015 and 2020 editions of CIBSE Guide D – Transportation Systems in Buildings, and the 2009, 2014 and 2019 editions of the BCO Office Guide – Best Practice in the Specification for Offices. He also co-authored Building Services Design for Energy Efficient Buildings in 2020, and Resource Efficiency of Building Services CIBSE TM54 in 2014. He has published numerous articles on new technology, such as double deck elevators, destination control systems and life safety, as well as modernising and upgrading elevator systems within existing buildings.

Simon has appeared on TV and radio as a Lift & Escalator Technical Expert. He appeared on Jeremy Vine’s BBC Radio 2 live show to discuss the relevant safety factors of lifts, to reassure the general public that lifts are one of the safest modes of transport on the planet, after a lift failure at a major public attraction resulted in personal injury. He has also appeared on BBC2’s Newsnight with Tim Harford on a segment titled “Why do we have to wait so long for lifts?”

Technical expertise
Vertical Transportation design including:
Passenger Lifts
Goods Lifts
Platform Lifts
Lorry Lifts
Escalators
Moving Walks

Simon undertakes instructions worldwide.
For further information please download his CV.

European Engineer and Chartered Engineer. Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Building Services Engineers (CIBSE) − Fellow of the Institute of Engineering & Technology (IET). − Member of the British Council for Offices (BCO) − Member of the Council for Tall Buildings & Urban Habitat (CTBUH). Member of the Society of Construction Law (SCL)