Des Hosie is a career firefighter and 43-year veteran of Fire and Emergency New Zealand and the previous New Zealand Fire Service.

He has extensive operational firefighting and rescue experience.

Currently serving in the Operational Assurance Directorate, he is National Advisor for Safety, Continuous Improvement and Lessons Management based in Fire and Emergency New Zealand’s National Headquarters.

Through the AFAC partnership, Des has contributed as a lessons management practitioner on a number of major incident reviews in both New Zealand and Australia. He led the All of Government Lessons Review into the Whakaari/White Island Volcanic Eruption.

He is the Chair of the AFAC Knowledge Innovation Research Utilisation Network (AFAC KIRUN) and Deputy Chair of the Work Health and Safety Technical Group (AFAC WHSTG). He is a committee member of the AFAC Research Strategy Group and leads The AFAC Lessons Management Forum.

He also leads a Lessons Management Community of Practice in New Zealand called LessoNZ. Its function is to share lessons from incidents and exercises across the All of Government, Emergency Services, Defence and key infrastructure sectors.