The British Cleaning Council is sad to announce the recent passing of former BCC Chairman Peter Bird.
Peter, who served as the Council’s Chair from 1996-1999, began his career in cleaning with Lever Industrial Ltd in the early 1970s.
There he served as a Technical Services Manager, and an Environmental Health Officer, and provided services, advice and help with cleaning and disinfection operations across a wide range of sectors and industries.
Following an acquisition, Peter became a Technical Business Unit Manager for JohnsonDiversey Ltd, and continued to work in the cleaning for the rest of his career.
Known as an innovator, he was an advocate of the development of products which could clean and disinfect in one stage. His expertise in this area saw him closely involved in the development of a still widely used product; the Titan Sanitiser.
Prior to becoming Chair of the BCC, Peter served as National Chairman of The British Institute of Cleaning Science (1992 – 1994), and was instrumental in the reshaping of the organisation.
Later in his career he provided technical advice and consultancy support as a Fellow and Life Member of the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health, and authored a number of manuals in the food safety arena.
He also applied his expertise to his role a judge for Clean Britain Awards for many years, and received BICSc’s highest accolade, the Sholom Gordon award, in 2000.
Outside of work, Peter was known as a real character within the cleaning world – and could often could be found playing the piano, the guitar or singing to anyone who would listen.
He will be fondly remembered and missed by BCC colleagues, and many within the wider cleaning industry, who had the pleasure of knowing him, and working with him.
He is survived by his wife Rosemary, sons Mathew and Russell, and grandchildren Luke and Lara.