IAPA 2025 judges announced

Taking place in Dublin, 13 March, the 2025 IAPAs celebrate excellence and best practice in the access industry.

There are 13 award categories for this edition, offering the usual range of new products and innovations to sustainability and safety, alongside equality and diversity in the workplace. The deadline for entries is 2 December - enter here. 

Organised by Access International and IPAF, the IAPA ceremony takes place on the same day as the IPAF Summit, offering top level presentations and topical industry discussion, along with outstanding networking opportunities across both events.

The winners will be chosen by an independent judging panel of five longstanding industry experts, with the fifth to be announced shortly.

For more information on the Summit, awards and other events associated with the IAPAs, visit the event website. 

The IAPA judges

David Meeke began his career in 1992 working in the access industry as an apprentice access engineer with Highway Plant based in Dunmurry, Belfast. He served his time there as a workshop engineer, mobile service engineer then workshop supervisor during which he achieved one of the first IPAF CAP qualifications in the UK for access engineers.

David’s career then saw him taking the step into training and qualifying as an IPAF instructor in 2002 and subsequently CAP Assessor in 2010.

Following the purchase of Highway Plant by Balloo Hire Centres (a Briggs Equipment Company), his role now has progressed to Training Manager for one of the largest hire companies in Northern Ireland.

His long involvement with IPAF saw him elected to the IPAF UK Country Council in 2019 and then to the position of Chairperson of the IPAF Irish Council in 2022, a position he has retained for a second term following elections in the autumn of 2024.

Kirsty Archbold-Laming

Kirsty Archbold-Laming joined the industry over 30 years ago working for a fledgling company, Southern Hoist Services, which has grown into one of the largest hoist rental companies in the UK with over 130 hoists in the fleet, serving not only the UK but various projects across Europe.

Well-known and respected in her specialist field, she became a director of Southern Hoist in 2008 and is an advocate for improving standards and raising the bar in the industry.

Southern Hoist are founding members of the Construction Hoist Interest Group (CHIG), a specialist group within CPA (Construction Plant-Hire Association). Kirsty has been involved since inception in 1996 and has been Chair since 2012.

In the last 10 years she has developed a strong relationship between CHIG and IPAF, resulting in new training courses for both users and installers. Sitting within the IPAF MCWP UK & Ireland Workgroup and the IPAF Rental + Committee she is committed to educating the industry and providing assistance.

Karel Huijser is JLG’s general manager and vice president for Europe, Africa and the Middle East (EAME) and became president of the International Powered Access Federation (IPAF) in March.

Karel draws on a wealth of experience. Having studied in Delft in the early 1980s to become an industrial designer by trade, he started his career in the mid-1980s at the DAF Trucks design center. He also worked in various roles at General Electric and Tennant.

Later in his career, at the age of 50, Karel decided to go back to school – at the Columbia Business School in New York City – to become a Master of Science in Leadership. Here he learned about value-driven leadership and leading change management. Following that, he joined JLG in 2012 in the EMEA role.

In November it was announced Karel will leave JLG next year, but remain as IPAF President until 2026. 

In his personal life, Karel and his wife have fostered five children, one of whom is now grown up and part of our family, and one (a 13-year-old) has recently just joined the family.

Paola Palazzani took over as President of Italian spider lift specialist this year from her father Davide.

Palazzani’s plan is to refocus the company into a ‘people’ orientated organization aimed at growing its rental customer base.

Having joined at the age of 21, she has 25 years of experience at the company, having joined it, and will lead now lead the company’s long-term strategy,

While Paola’s job status had changed under her new leadership position, “I’m still dealing with sales - that is my big passion,” she says.

The big difference is how the company is now structured. “In the past we were in that category of a small Italian company where everything is built around an entrepreneur.”

“So, we have moved from the entrepreneur-based business, with one person in the central of view, to one that has different managers for different processes.