Ian Livsey has been appointed as the new chair of SummitSkills, the Sector Skills Council for building services engineering (BSE).
Livsey will begin his term on January 1, 2009 and will take over from the current SummitSkills chairman Simon Bartley.

Livsey has been working as the chief executive of the Gangmasters Licensing Authority (GLA), which has a remit to ensure that standards are maintained by Gangmasters supplying migrant labour into the UK economy.

Before his role with the GLA, Ian Livsey was chairman of TrustMark, the scheme set up to protect consumers from rogue traders in the domestic construction sector. He is also the former managing director of the Centre for Rail Skills, a membership body involving engineering, construction and passenger transport companies in the national rail industry.

Livsey will be responsible for ensuring SummitSkills to delivers projects within the Sector Skills Agreement to equip the BSE sector with a skilled workforce. He will also steer SummitSkills to meet the targets of the new governing body, the UK Commission for Employment and Skills (UKCES).

SummitSkills' chief executive, Keith Marshall OBE, said 'I'm hugely grateful to Simon for building SummitSkills to where it is today from scratch, just five years ago. We welcome Ian to guide the organisation through its next phase of activity and delivering the challenging goals set by Leitch, the UKCES and the skills policies of the devolved administrations.'

Ian Livsey said 'This appointment gives me the opportunity to apply my broad built environment and skills background to help the organisation excel'.