Meet our team - Johan Askman

12 September 2025 by

Mars Fire Engineering Limited

Johan Askman: Managing Director

Johan is a Chartered Engineer with the Institution of Fire Engineers with over eleven years experience in the industry.

Tell us a little bit about your background and how you ended up in fire engineering?

I studied fire engineering at Lund University in Sweden which was my natural path to the industry. However, the choice to study fire engineering was not as straight forward. I took a bit of a break between high school and university to go travelling for a couple of years and try and figure out what I wanted to do in the future. I came back with a lot of great memories and life experience, however, not really with a decision on my future. I ended up flicking through a university course magazine and fire engineering caught my eye, in all honesty, mostly because I thought it sounded exciting.

I am very happy I made that decision though, as the fire engineering profession is, for me, the perfect blend of technical problem solving, communication and collaboration with a lot of different people and disciplines in order to work towards a safer and more inclusive built environment.

In your opinion, what makes the difference between a good and a great project?

To me, this all comes down to engagement. It doesn’t matter the size or the complexity of the project, what makes it a great experience for me is when all stakeholders engage in a collaborative way right from the start. As fire engineers, our influence and impact on a project is far greater now than it might have been five, six years ago. Getting involved right from the start and engaging with the client and design team to understand the brief and the vision to then be able to have a positive impact on the design direction is so important for the overall experience and outcome. It can single-handedly be the difference between wind in the sails and positive project momentum from the off compared to frustrations and project delays due to necessary abortive works and re-design.

What do you aim to achieve with Mars Fire Engineering?

That is quite a big question and I would probably need a couple of pages to fully do it justice, but to try and boil it down, I come back to our guiding principles of safety, clarity and confidence. Safety needs to come first as that is the ultimate baseline for everything we do and should drive the decision-making process. The next principle is clarity and I remember something I was told in the beginning of my career which has stayed with me: It doesn’t matter how technically sound and impressive a fire engineered solution is if it is not communicated in a way that is clear and easy to digest and understand for a variety of different people and backgrounds. Too often do we as fire engineers fall into the trap of writing and communicating as if the target audience were other fire engineers with a similar level of technical expertise. The principle of clarity in our advice to clients and design teams is pivotal to achieve the fundamental principle of safety. Finally, the principle of confidence relates to our goal as a company to instil confidence in everyone we work with, via hands-on senior expertise on every project, a clear focus on competency in all services we offer, and working collaboratively to build trusted partnerships where clients know that they can rely on us.

What are your biggest interests outside of work?

I have always loved travelling for a lot of different reasons be it experiencing new places and cultures, nature and wildlife or food and wine. Another big interest of mine is football and I’m a longstanding fan of a football club in London but I won’t get into the details as it can be a bit divisive, as we are already experiencing within the Mars team!