Author: Events Team

Brian Wedemeyer, Vice President of EHS – Partner Industrial

This roundtable session from Brian evaluated the relationship between leadership behaviours and employee engagement. Various theories and research findings were presented to begin a discussion on what this means for safety professionals. This session was for professionals who direct this functional strategy within their organization.

ABOUT BRIAN WEDEMEYER

Brian was recruited to build and manage the EHS department of a new specialty services company in the petrochemical industry in 2017. Since then, Partner Industrial has become one of the fastest growing companies in North America with operations spanning Alaska down to the Gulf Coast. Partner Industrial employs a risk control system modeled closely after military aviation best practices to develop greater performance in high risk, construction activities. The system has gained popularity among the operational team for its simplicity, ease, and effectiveness at pre-empting human error. Brian currently resides in Houston and enjoys fitness, windsurfing, and is pursuing his MBA at Rice University.

Allison Montgomery, Senior Director EHS&S – L3Harris Technologies

During this roundtable session, Allison shared a detailed insight into the benefits of using one stream-lined tool for workers
compensation management that has fully integrated into L3Harris Technologies overall EHS management system software.

ABOUT ALLISON MONTGOMERY

Allison Montgomery is the Global Senior Director of Environmental, Health and Safety for Harris Corporation. She is based at Harris’ Corporate Headquarters in Melbourne, FL and is responsible for developing strategies to improve the company’s overall Environmental, Health and Safety performance. Before joining Harris, Allison worked at Pentair as the Global Director of EHS and Quality and held varying EHS Management roles with Alcoa, Inc. Allison served four years in the United States Marine Corps. She holds a BS degree in Biology from The Ohio State University and a MS degree in Environmental Management from The University of Maryland.

Moderator:

Andrew Barrett, Chief Connector – Safety on Tap

Panellists:

Darcy Robison, Director, Global EHSE, Pentair
John Green, Senior Vice President EHS, AECON
Diana Cosgrove, Danaher Water Platform, Chief EHS Officer, Danaher

This panel discussion from a range of industry experts explored the ever-changing dynamics in the role of a health and safety leader from
where it was to where it is today and how to prepare for the future of the role as a safety leader.

ABOUT ANDREW BARRETT

I like it outside the box. It’s not as comfortable as inside the box, but way more fun, I learn heaps, and make a bigger difference in the world. Sometimes it’s just outside the box, and I beckon others to join me. Other times I run towards the edges, seeing how far I can go.
So, how can I help you?

– I created a podcast for you at safetyontap.com, to support as many professionals as possible improve your capability, to become more effective, and in turn have greater impact. Have a listen, it’s free (and there’s plenty more good stuff on the website you should check out, including events)

– I curate a community of people in the growth accelerator Safety on Tap Connected. Members learn socially, and develop through coaching from me (with some very intentional educational content there too). A better investment than a point-in-time conference.

– I work with safety leaders and companies who want to go beyond the status quo, whether that’s improving on what you’ve already got or drastic changes more akin to Safety II/safety differently. It often ends up looking like workshops, facilitation, comms, strategy, OD and systems work. Should you and I co-design something and take action like that?

– I love getting together with groups of people. I do this often at conferences, breakfasts, and random social gatherings. I am a connector of people with each other, and with new ideas. Should we meet sometime?

ABOUT JOHN GREEN

John has worked in the oil, gas, petrochemical, electronics, heavy engineering, construction and aviation sectors and has 40 years’ experience of industrial safety. He is recognised and respected as someone who does safety differently and as major force for change in how industrial safety is delivered.

He has spent periods living and working overseas with in the Dubai, Iran, Europe, Hong Kong, New Zealand, parts of the USA and has recently returned from a 5-year spell in Australia covering major construction operations in the southern hemisphere. He know lives in Canada.

He has held senior positions with Motorola, British Airways and Board level positions with McAlpine, Laing O’Rourke, Battersea Power Station Development Company and now AECON. He is currently the SVP and CSO for Aecon.

John holds qualifications in Occupational Health and Safety, Environmental Mgmt, Risk Mgmt, Change Mgmt, Psychology, Law and Philosophy and is currently studying towards a LLM. He is an advocate of doing safety differently and challenging traditional or orthodox thinking.

He spends any spare time that he has climbing in Europe and scuba diving across the world or any other pastime that requires exceptional risk management skills.

ABOUT DARCY ROBISON

Darcy Robison is the Director of Global Environmental, Health and Safety for Pentair. She is based in Oklahoma City, OK and is responsible for setting strategy to drive excellence in Pentair’s Environmental, Health and Safety performance across the enterprise. Before joining Pentair, Darcy held various EHS and Quality leadership roles with PPG Industries, Avery Dennison and Stericycle. She holds a BS degree in Chemistry from Missouri University of Science and Technology and a MS degree in Environmental Science and Policy from The University of Wisconsin-Green Bay. In her free time you will find Darcy volunteering at her local women’s shelter, campus environmental group or animal shelter. She also enjoys kayaking, motorcycling, hiking and is learning to play the cajon.

ABOUT DIANA COSGROVE

“Diana is the Chief EHS Officer for Danaher Corporation’s water quality business platform since January 2018. She is responsible for driving EHS strategy, staff development and supporting operating companies in achieving recognized performance after serving as the Danaher Director, EHS Governance form 2012-2017.

Diana is a UCLA graduate (MS) and a Certified Industrial Hygienist (CIH) with a career encompassing experience in a number of corporate entities including those in technology, mining, smelting and refining, and defense manufacturing fields. “

Charles Kendall, Global Director of EHS – CHS Inc.

This session described CHS’s journey of creating collaboration of EHS leaders into their Business Units to drive EHS and fleet transformation. This session highlighted methods these teams used to improve EHS and fleet systems and create a sustainable EHS and fleet management system for the organization for years to come.

ABOUT CHARLES KENDALL

Chuck is the Global director of EHS for CHS Inc., a fortune 100 oil and gas and agribusiness cooperative. Chuck had held senior safety roles at Kraft Foods, General Mills, and Land O’ Lakes during a 26-year career in EHS. His education included a Bachelor of Industrial Engineering, Master of Industrial Safety and Hygiene, and a Master of Business Administration. Current certifications include: Certified Safety Professional, Associate in Risk Management, & Certified Safety and Environmental Auditor.

Barbara Veith, Director Environmental, Health & Safety – Fruit of the Loom

Fruit of the Loom, Inc. needed a database system that could consolidate chemical inventories from over 30 facilities; track chemical approval processes; provide chemical component listings and handle safety data sheets revisions and updates.
Consolidating chemicals between facilities and handling safety data sheet revision updates is very difficult and time consuming. Fruit of the Loom was searching for a system that would allow them to share their chemical inventories across all divisions and assist in compliance with OSHA Hazard Communication standard, EPA reporting and customer requirements.
This workshop showed how they were able to implement a database management system that consolidates all their facility inventories; handles revisions and updates; streamlines their approval process; reduces their overall chemical inventory by 20%; complies with reporting regulations worldwide and simplifies their process to answer customer inquiries.

ABOUT BARBARA VEITH

Barbara Veith, Director Environmental, Health & Safety for Fruit of the Loom, Inc. is responsible for providing expertise and strategic leadership for the global company environmental, health and safety programs and initiatives to ensure proper compliance and optimization within established regulations and guidelines and to maintain our program to communicate critical business information to participating employees in the event of business interruptions, threats or critical events. Barbara is an Authorized 10 and 30-hour General Industry Trainer and an American Red Cross Instructor.

Michael Oram, Business Development Manager – dorsaVi

Wearables in the workplace is a hot topic, but what difference can they make to your workplace safety culture? How do you identify risk, design it out, measure and improve?

Traditional ergonomic workplace assessments are subjective and don’t paint a full picture of the movement strain being placed on individuals. However, with detailed and objective data, organizations can make fully informed decisions with confidence.
In this workshop attendee’s learnt how wearable sensor technology is being used by leading businesses globally to identify movement risk, make manual handling policy decisions, develop and execute effective manual handling training programs, and to inform and guide equipment selection, manage onsite and interactive training programs and change manual handling movement behaviour.

ABOUT MICHAEL ORAM

Michael has 15 years’ experience as a senior sales professional working directly with employers, insurance carriers, and third-party administrators on implementation of strategies to assist with key initiatives of safety programs. Illustrating value via custom metrics driven solutions that promote better outcomes and deliverables to injured workers from first report of injury to case closure.

Ramon Seco, Assurance Director – Worley

The wellbeing and mental health of the employees in the workplace is becoming a key element of the work relationship between employees and employers. Employees are keener to work with employers able to provide a work environment where mental health support can be provided to the employees with relevant employees assistance programs.
“It is the mind that makes the body.”
Sojourner Truth
American 1797 – 1883
In this keynote presentation from Ramon he discussed all things mental health and mental concern including what is mental health, differences between mental health and mental concern, signs to look out for, causes of stress and much more.

ABOUT RAMON SECO

Ramon is recognized as a highly experienced global HSE leader with a passion for results, a collaborative and influential leadership style, a global mindset and the courage to lead major change.

Ramon has in excess of 28 years’ experience managing HSE&S aspects in different sectors and industries with a significant focus on the Oil, Gas and Petrochemical industry. Ramon has achieved significant professional successes in North America, Canada, Latin America, Middle East, and the Far East Regions.

Ramon has more than 17 years of Managerial experience having formed part of Global and Regional Leadership Teams in various companies. Ramon has also held different Roles and Responsibilities in different projects for TIER I & II clients in different sectors and industries.

Ramon has a strong background in the areas of implementation of HSE Management system, transformational change of the delivery model of the HSE function within Global organizations, global strategy and high impact “customer focused” interventions.

Donna McEntee, Workplace Safety and Health Solution Manager – Skillsoft

Determining the Return on Investment for your safety and health learning program can be quite challenging. Building a credible process to evaluate key measurable aspects of your program requires careful thought and consideration. The benefits of conducting an ROI include showing the contribution your program makes to the organization versus the cost ( justifying the cost of your training program), demonstrates the value safety and health training provides to the overall success of the organization, and, provides a tool for identifying both useful and ineffective programs or areas in need of improvement.
In this session, Donna explored ROI models, and the process of capturing and evaluating data, and communicating results.

ABOUT DONNA MCENTEE

Donna McEntee manages Skillsoft’s global library of more than 800 Workplace Safety and Health courses. As the Workplace Safety and Health Solution Manager, she works with Skillsoft’s stakeholders and customers to design effective compliance training programs and provides subject matter support for workplace safety, health, environmental, and transportation regulations and best practices. Donna holds a master’s degree in Safety, Security, and Emergency Management from Eastern Kentucky University.

Ray Fisher, Advanced Error Reduction and Training Manager – Fisher Improvement Technologies

This interactive session from Ray of Fisher Improvement Technologies touched on the most advanced science-based information and methods related to HOP and the importance of understanding personality tendencies when managing risk.
Different people with different personality tendencies see and manage risk differently. This session introduced attendees to the concepts of how to understand the differences at all levels of the organization to better manage risk and reduce incidents. Attendees were encouraged to download the “E-Colors” App onto their mobile phone before the session and take the Personality Diversity Indicator (PDI) to determine their personality tendencies so that they could get the most out of the workshop.

ABOUT RAY FISHER

Ray Fisher is currently the President and Director of Operations for Fisher Improvement Technologies (FIT), a Native-American (Cherokee) owned business that was recently awarded a Top-100 Native-American Owned Business in the US and a Top-50 Emerging Business in North Carolina by DiversityBusines.com. Ray has extensive experience in performing incident analyses, designing performance improvement systems, designing and improving corrective action programs, designing and running procedure programs, and educating staff from the senior leaders to the field. He is a sought-after mentor and trainer, and is routinely invited to speak at international, national and regional conferences on safety, procedures, performance improvement, human & organizational performance and incident analysis. FIT has most recently been recognized internationally as instrumental in reducing fatalities and serious / life-altering injuries in high hazard industries using human & organizational performance and procedure concepts.

FIT provides education and consulting services in Human & Organizational Performance Improvement, Incident Analysis and Corrective Actions, and Improving Procedures / Programs / Processes for multiple industries. FIT methodology has been deployed and integrated in over 100 companies in 20 countries and 10 different languages. Current projects include:
• Manufacturing, Industrial and Petrochemical
• Utility power generation, transmission & distribution
• Nuclear Operations
• Shipping
• Mining and refining
• Department of Energy and
• International High Risk.
FIT is known world-wide for the creation of practical application error reduction tools for use from the Senior Leaders to the hands of the field worker.

Chris Diaz, VP/Safety Health and Environmental – Balfour Beatty

Typically, when we observe, measure and track safety performance we’re focusing on what’s going wrong. In recent years, Balfour Beatty has discovered that when their teams take the time to recognize what’s going right and reward good safety behaviours they begin to shift the mentality and attitude on safety.
“When positive reinforcement is combined with superintendent leadership and best practices, like pre-task planning, we not only shift the culture of safety we eliminate risks from our projects altogether.” In this workshop, Chris shared recent examples of a process that is changing the culture of safety at Balfour Beatty.

ABOUT CHRIS DIAZ

With over 30 years of construction experience and a passion for safety, Melbourne Florida resident Chris Diaz leads the safety efforts, management, and initiatives for Balfour Beatty’s Florida projects division-wide. As Vice President of Safety Health and Environment, Chris personifies the spirit of a multi-faceted leader that has a unique ability to lead with heart, safeguard our project sites and streamline our ZeroHarm operations. As a local safety ambassador, he consistently looks to instill an exemplary safety culture at Balfour Beatty and beyond.