Dean is currently the Managing Director of NCC Environmental Services (Pty) LTD in South Africa, a company he founded in 2003. NCC is one of the leading providers of environmental, conservation and health and safety services in Africa.

Prior to setting up NCC, he worked in local government for 15 years as the head of conservation for the City of Cape Town. There he found his passion for wildfire management. He also set up the very first Film and Events Office in South Africa.

Over the last 19 years he has further enhanced his skills and experiences as a private environmental consultant, specialising in amongst other things, Integrated Wildfire Management, All Hazard Training and large-scale project management.  This led him into Incident Command System (ICS) management and over the last 12 years he has attained various ICS qualifications and certification. Using these skills, he has been providing guidance and training to various organisations around the African continent.  More recently developing the eLearning platform for the Ethiopian Government’s National Disaster Management Centre specifically related to ICS.  This program is funded by the US Forest Services International Program.

Over many years Dean has been part of some of the largest sporting events in South Africa – The ABSA Cape Epic, the Cape Town Cycle Tour, the Two Oceans Marathon, Wines-to-Whales, Cape Town Marathon, where he guided his team in the environmental, risk management and related services ensuring a safe and successful event.  More recently introducing ICS into the planning and execution of these events.

Dean met Alan Sinclair in Germany in October 2019.  They had been invited to assist a group of German Wildland Firefighters in improving their skills and competencies, as the risk of extreme wildfires was on the increase in their country. It became obvious that they both shared a similar passion for the wildfire/all hazard industry and the safety of those involved.  

In March 2022, Dean invited Alan to join him in offering an Urban Search and Rescue Incident Management Team scenario-based training exercise to the Type 2 IMT in the Western Cape of South Africa.  This will be followed by another scenario (a wildfire one) for the IMT as part of their ongoing improvement training.  Prior to that, Dean had offered this type of exercise to a previous team in 2019.

Dean is a member of the International Association of Wildland Fire, Institute of Directors of South Africa, the National Fire Protection Association, the Game Rangers Association of Africa, the South African Rights of Way Association, the International Association of Impact Assessors, South African Emergency Services Institute, the Association of Fire Ecology and is a Certificated Natural Scientist.