Ron Dobson became London Fire Commissioner in 2007 having risen through the ranks since joining the Brigade in 1979.
In 1996 as Divisional Commander, Ron was one of the first senior officers at the scene of the Canary Wharf bomb blast where he coordinated the painstaking search of the incident.
He has been central to the preparations for responding to the threat of terrorism, working closely with the government and our partners. During the 2005 London bombings he was the Brigade’s Senior Operational Commander.
Ron was awarded the Queen's Fire Service Medal in 2005.
Rita Dexter joined the Brigade as Director of Corporate Services in 2001, where she was responsible for legal and democratic services, communications, strategy and performance and Information Technology. She was promoted to Deputy Commissioner in November 2009.
Rita began her local authority career as a junior clerk in 1979 at Birmingham City Council. She then moved on to work at the Department of the Environment, where she specialised in the powers and duties of local authorities.
In 1995 she joined Barnet Council where she spent six years. She left Barnet Council as the Deputy Chief Executive to join the Brigade.
Following Rita Dexter’s appointment to Deputy Commissioner the post of Director of Corporate Services is currently vacant.
Gary Dobson joined the Brigade in 1981 and became the Director of Operational Policy and Training in January 2008.
In 1994 Gary joined the Brigade’s training and development department, but returned to operations in 2003.
In 2005 he was promoted to Deputy Assistant Commissioner for Incident Management in Operational Response. In 2006 he was promoted to temporary Assistant Commissioner and became the Head of Training and Development for the Brigade.
Barbara Riddell joined the Brigade as Director of Resources in 2001, where she is responsible for human resources, property, procurement and finance.
Barbara held a range of central government positions from ministerial private secretary to managing government property at senior civil service level, before moving as Head of Corporate Services to set up English Partnerships in 1994.
She then joined the Metropolitan Police in 1996 as Director of Support Services Review and became Director of Corporate Development, before joining the Brigade.
In 2007 Barbara was awarded an OBE in recognition of her services to the fire and rescue service.
