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Michael is head of occupational safety & health (OSH) Member Services in Ibec.

He is chairperson of the Management & Executive Boards of the European Agency for Safety & Health at Work (EU-OSHA) and is an employer representative on the European Commissions’ Advisory Committee on Safety & Health (ACSH). He is a former Deputy Chairperson of the Board of the Health and Safety Authority in Ireland. He has a BA (Mod.) and Ph.D. in Chemistry from Trinity College Dublin & a Diploma in Safety Health & Welfare at Work from University College Dublin.

William Cockburn has worked at the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work (EU-OSHA) since 1998 where he focused on the areas of research coordination, emerging risks and was responsible for the first European survey of enterprises on new and emerging risks (ESENER). Since 2012 and until September 2021 William was in charge of EU-OSHA’s Prevention and Research Unit, which develops the OSH content for the agency. On 16 October 2023, after a period as Interim Executive Director, William formally took the position as EU-OSHA´s Executive Director. Born in the UK, William trained first as a lawyer and then as an ergonomist. Prior to joining EU-OSHA, he worked in academic research investigating company safety culture and in the private sector as an ergonomics consultant and research manager for projects in health and safety at work.