Keynote Speakers

Robert A. Crescenzo is Vice President of Safety & Loss Control at the Lancer Insurance Group headquartered in Long Beach, NY. Since 1985, Lancer has been one of the nation’s leading insurers of the passenger transportation industry.

Mr. Crescenzo is responsible for coordinating the Lancer safety engineering program, marketing and seminar preparation for commercial auto customers, including motorcoach operators. In 1988 he founded Lancer Compliance Services, a comprehensive drug and alcohol testing service.

Mr. Crescenzo has presented at United Motorcoach Association and American Bus Association forums and conducted Supervisor Certification training for state and regional bus associations at various sites across the country. He has also authored several articles and been extensively quoted in industry trade publications on the topics of safety, driver training and regulatory compliance.

Mr. Peoples is the Manager of the Commercial Ground Vehicle group at Kidde Technologies, Inc.  He has worked in the special hazards fire protection field for 27 years.  His background includes system design, research and development, live fire testing and vehicle fire investigation for both military and commercial hazards.

For the last 12 years he has focused on Automatic Fire Detection and Suppression systems for the transit, school bus and coach industries.  He has presented at numerous trade conferences and is a contributing member of the APTA Bus Safety Working Group.

Kathleen H. Almand, P.E., FPRF, USA

Kathleen Almand is the Executive Director of the Fire Protection Research Foundation, an affiliate of the National Fire Protection Association.   She holds a master’s degree in civil engineering from the University of Ottawa, Canada and is a registered professional engineer in the State of Maryland and a Fellow of the Society of Fire Protection Engineers.  Prior to joining FPRF in 2004, Kathleen was the Executive Director of the Society of Fire Protection Engineers and held research and management positions with the Civil Engineering Research Foundation, the American Iron and Steel Institute, and the National Academy of Sciences.

Petra Andersson, SP, Sweden

Petra Andersson has worked with fire research for more than 20 years. She obtained her PhD in Fire Safety engineering at Lund University in 1997 and has since then worked at SP Fire technology with various research topics such as fire detection, functional performance during fires, extinguishment and environmental effects. Her research includes both simulations and experiments. Lately her research has been more focused on Electric and Hybrid vehicles.