Brian Fowler

It is with great sadness that I have to report the passing of our Technical Director, Mr Brian Fowler, who has sadly died at the age of 82 last Friday, following a short battle with cancer.

I am aware that not everyone will have known Brian, however without his involvement we would not be the company we are today.

Brian was instrumental in the formation of QAI Ltd, running the Sunderland office of the then consultancy company from 1992.

In 1999, QAI Ltd was wound up as a consultancy firm and Brian's involvement continued as a Director of IHC Ltd, alongside Peter Ainsworth, who were sub-contracted to run the Food Hygiene audits for QA International Certification Ltd.

In 2001, Brian was heavily involved in the writing of the first version of the BRC Technical Standard for Packaging, which has now evolved into the BRC Global Standard for Packaging and Packaging Materials, which he continued auditing against up until what turned out to be his final audit for ourselves on the 14th August 2018, before his ill health prevented him from carrying out any more work.

Brian has visited many different places around the world, and he would love the opportunity to jet off to America or China or the Middle East to conduct an audit, but he was just as much at home auditing in the North East or any other part of the UK - he just loved doing what he did, and he loved trying to help people (whether or not he was allowed to do that as an auditor is a different subject!). He loved his job that much, that in the years from 2003 to 2014, it was not unusual for Brian to carry out over 100 audits per calendar year.

Brian will be sadly missed by all of us who knew him personally, and our thoughts and prayers go out to Nancy and the rest of his family at this sad time.