Who We Are

President

James Stahl Jr. is the current IFC President. He has held the position since 2010, and previously served the organization as Vice President. He is the Vice President & General Manager, Engineering and Emerging Businesses and member of the Board of Directors for Specified Technologies Inc. (STI). In his 23 years in the firestop industry, he has been involved in a variety of different roles, including product development, fire testing, technical support, building codes and standards work, marketing, and sales. He has served on a variety of different technical committees and task groups related to firestopping, including ASTM, BICSI, ISO, and UL Standards Technical Panels. He has 25+ patents in the field of fire protection and frequently speaks and writes about firestopping. You could say that firestopping runs in his blood as his late father, James “Jim” Stahl Sr., was an early pioneer in the field of firestopping and a founding member of the IFC.

Vice President

Angie Ogino is Thermafiber/Owens Corning’s Technical Services Leader. Angie has over 20 years’ experience in the mineral wool and firestopping industry, providing engineering judgments and technical assistance on mineral wool product performance for architects, building officials and contractors in the fire containment area. Angie is the developer and coordinator of all perimeter fire containment testing for Thermafiber at Underwriters Laboratories, Southwest Research and Intertek/Omega Point Laboratories. Angie is responsible for managing Thermafiber’s UL and Intertek/OPL Follow-Up Service Quality Programs. She is also the developer of Thermafiber’s educational programs on perimeter fire containment and has presented perimeter fire containment programs at the AIA National Conventions, as well as the CSI (Construction Specifiers Institute), PCI (Precast Prestressed Concrete Institute) and major architectural and curtain wall manufacturing firms throughout North America. Angie is a member of the Insulation Contractors Association of America where she Co-Chaired the Commercial Construction Committee for 5 years.

Treasurer

Mr. Mattox is a 1994 graduate from Oklahoma State University with a degree in Mechanical Engineering. During his 27 year career he has served in various technical roles with manufacturers and testing laboratories, with the last 6 years working for Specified Technologies. Mr. Mattox has spent considerable time working with standards writing organizations on a global basis – chairing task groups and developing test standards for UL, ASTM, and assisted NCFM for the People’s Republic of China to develop fire test standards for plastic pipe penetrations. In 2012 and 2013, Mr. Mattox served as the US Head of Delegation for ISO TC 163 – Thermal Performance and Energy Use in the Built Environment.

In a temporary departure from passive fire protection, Mr. Mattox designed and constructed a 3600 sq. ft. state-of-the-art air and water leakage testing laboratory which was used collaboratively with Oak Ridge National Laboratories and the Air Barrier Association of America. It was during this time he worked with UL to establish Exterior Wall Components (FWFX) and Systems (FWFO) Categories, which marries air and water performance with flame spread resistance for exterior walls. Mr. Mattox has been active in leadership roles for several trade associations, holding officer positions with the Air Barrier Association of America as well as the International Firestop Council where he currently serves as Treasurer.

Code Action Committee Chair

Edward Goldhammer, P.E. has held the position of Code Action Committee Chair since 2015. He is Director of Codes and Standards with Hilti North America and has over 3 decades of experience in the field of fire protection engineering. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from Cal Poly, SLO and a Masters in Fire Protection Engineering from University of Maryland. Edward is a duel registered professional engineer in both Fire Protection engineering and Mechanical engineering. He is an active participant in the International Code Council (ICC), National Fire Protection Association (NFPA), ASTM, UL, and ISO including standards chair for ASTM E814 Penetrations, E2750 Extension of Data, E3037 Movement in Penetrations, UL STP 1479 Membrane Penetrations, and Convenor for ISO 10295 Penetration and Joint Seals.

3rd Party Inspectors Committee Chair

Mr. Tesche has 29 years of experience in the Construction industry at Global FPG he is responsible for all aspects of the business, from engineering & design to consulting, inspections and education. Pat has worked with many large general contractors using his skills in Lean Construction, Quality Management and Preconstruction Risk Assessments to ensure project stay within budget and completion dates. Pat conducts Passive Fire Protection seminars to numerous AHJ’s, Fire Marshalls, and Civil Defense Personnel to Inspection firm throughout North American, South America and the Middle East. Pat is an IFC instructor for Firestop Hand-On Inspectors training and a contributing author of the IFC Firestop Inspector Test and Intertek IQP Program. Pat proudly serves on a variety of industry organizations. He is the IFC Inspectors Chair, Member of the ASTM E06 Committee focusing on the ASTM E 2174 & 2393 and is the Task of Group Chair for the ASTM E 3038 Firestop Inspectors Qualifications, as well as the ASTM E05 Fire Test Committee, UL Standards Technical Panel 1479/2079, National Fire Protection Association (NFPA), American Society for Sanitary Engineers (ASSE 9000), American Society of Health Care Engineers (ASHE), IFC (International Firestop Council) and a member of the ICC Liberty Chapter.

Duct Committee Chair

Middle East Chapter

Sajid Raza is the CEO of Butler Engineering (ME) & Butler Engineering Int’l Ltd (UK), responsible for overall operational steering of the organization in the Middle East, UK, Europe and Asia. Under his leadership, Butler Fire Consulting provides wide range of fire engineering and life safety consulting services globally.

He received Mechanical Engineering degree in 1993 and MBA in 1998. With strong belief in continuous learning, he took up various training courses like NFPA 101, 13, 20, 25, 72, 80, 130 and IFC Special Inspection training and many others. Being member of the UAE Fire Code Council, Sajid has provided a unique dimension to Fire & Life Safety DIIM philosophy. Recently conferred with the Global Excellence Award in the UAE for his contribution to ‘Life Safety Cause’ is a testimony in itself. In addition, Sajid is the Middle East Chapter Chair for the International Firestop Council (IFC) advocating a continuous fire safety improvement.

Furthermore, his all-round contribution to fire and life safety globally led him to be part of several UL Standards Technical Panels (UL-STP), IAS Technical Advisory Council (IAS-TAC), FCIA Standards Committee, IFC Inspector and Special Inspection Training Committees to name a few.

Responsible for IFC educational and other activities in UAE, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, Iraq, Iran, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, and Cyprus.

Latin America Chapter

Paloma is the representative of the International Firestop Council in Latin America. She has been dedicated for more than 11 years to the study of fire, active and passive protection systems. Currently is part of Hilti and she collaborates in different standardization committees in Mexico, such as UL, ONNCE and STPS; ABECE and CB 024 in Brazil, INN and the ICH in Chile. She is the co-author of the book: Guía para sistemas de protección pasiva cortafuego. Besides she has been a professor of passive protection master’s degree at the Isabel I University in Spain. Paloma is a Petro- chemical Engineer graduated from the Instituto Politécnico Nacional in Mexico. Prior to her experience at Hilti, Paloma worked for different companies in Mexico such as CH2M Hill, ICA Fluor Daniel and the Mexican Petroleum Institute mainly developing risk analysis and consequence assessment for fire, explosions and toxic cloud dispersion, as well as fire protection systems design for different industrial and residential-commercial projects.

Responsible for IFC educational and other activities in Mexico and Chile

Marketing & Events Director

Lauren Greenfeather has been with IFC since August of 2019, and leads our Marketing, Training and Event efforts. She is a consulting and marketing professional, specializing in email marketing, social media management, event coordination, branding and content creation. Lauren has a BS in Marketing and Entrepreneurship from Oklahoma State University. She has 10 years of experience in the construction industry, in a variety of different roles, including sales, marketing, merchandising, large-scale and VIP event coordinating, communication, and project management. Lauren’s email is [email protected].

Code Consultant

Tony Crimi, P.Eng., MASc., is a registered professional engineer and founder of A.C. Consulting Solutions Inc., specializing in building- and fire-related codes, standards, and product development activities in the United States, Canada, and Europe. Working with manufacturers and industry associations, he advocates for approval and safe use of materials and products, and for their code recognition. Crimi has more than three decades of experience in the area of codes, standards, testing, and conformity assessment. He is an active participant in International Code Council (ICC), National Fire Protection Association (NFPA), ASTM, UL, and ISO, and is the immediate part-chair of the National Building Code of Canada (NBC) Standing Committee on Fire Protection. Crimi can be reached at [email protected].