A rising star at Zebra Technologies has become the recipient of an inaugural bursary – presented to recognise his work with emergency responders and public safety services in the UK and Ireland.
Ollie Horrell received his award from the British Association of Public Safety Communications Officials in March. The bursary was being given out for the first time in memory of the organisation’s former Chief Executive Ian Thompson, who died in 2020.
According to British APCO, Thompson was a “great advocate” for developing young talent within the public safety industry and the bursary will support Ollie to attend one of five international conferences alongside one of its board members.
Ollie, a Sales Account Manager focused on the Fire sector, has been with Zebra Technologies for two years. He currently works on developing resilient and future-proofed solutions to tackle operational and technological challenges faced by first responders. These include the use of Mobile Computing, Asset Tracking, and Critical Communications.
“Being awarded this bursary will allow me to engage more widely with the industry globally and learn about new innovations in the public safety environment. This will help us at Zebra Technologies to develop partnerships and collaborations to drive the next generation of economically viable and environmentally sustainable solutions.”
The conferences Ollie could attend are EENA (Ljubljana, Slovenia), Critical Comms World (Helsinki, Finland), NENA (Grapevine, Texas), ACPO International (Nashville, Tennessee), or ACPO Canada (Calgary). There he will be expected to present his own findings of an issue faced by the industry and next year, Olly will attend British APCO’s Advisory Group to gain insight from its Chief Operating Officer and Board members.
Ollie’s manager, Matt Wroughton who is the Government, Field Operations and Utilities Sales Manager at Zebra Technologies – adds: “’We celebrate this award in the spirit and memory of Ian Thompson who was highly respected in the industry and a personal friend of mine. I’m very proud Ollie put himself forward to support technology innovation in this important sector.”
As part of his work, Ollie is actively encouraged to immerse himself into the emergency services world so he can best assist them with their digital transformation; his aim is to help those in the sector find the right hardware and software solutions.
Based in Worcester, Ollie has a degree in International Business and German from Reading University and he also spent a year studying/working in Berlin and Dusseldorf.
Zebra Technologies is a public safety technology partner helping emergency responders make informed safety and efficiency decisions. It has more than 50 years of technology expertise in developing proven hardware and software solutions that can tackle specific customer challenges and solve their ever-evolving needs.
For more information please visit: British APCO | BAPCO
For more information please visit: www.zebra.com
