Welcome
Roland Moreau Chair, Safety Congress 2021
Bio
Opening Keynote: Controlling Risk in a Dangerous World
On the front lines of danger, operators face hazards and make life-and-death decisions in dynamic, complex situations. They are the last line of defense. How do we help them stay alive—and be more productive? Managers in organizations manage risk with systematic processes intended to limit the assessed risk. Even in the best organizations, when it is time to go to work, operators don’t manage risk; they control risk. To prevent all accidents—even unpredicted ones—the front-line workers need techniques to supplement the rules and procedures. Since the beginning of the space program, astronauts have developed techniques based on the principles of operating excellence to execute missions and stay alive in unforgiving environments. These principles-based techniques can help optimize performance in any high-risk businesses, and accomplish more in our dangerous world—or out of this world!
Jim Wetherbee Captain, U.S. Navy (retired) and former astronaut, NASA
Plenary Session #1: The Value Proposition for Safety
The engineering, construction, manufacturing, and transportation industries have made great strides to improve safety on jobsites and asset designs, yet they continue to experience significant operational and process safety incidents. This is especially true in the construction industry, which when compared to other work industries, appears to have a disproportionate number of worker injuries and fatalities. Current safety management knowledge and concepts indicate a need to start addressing safety during planning and design. Hazard identification along with risk assessment and mitigation play a big part in injury and fatality prevention. Developing an overarching, comprehensive safety program for a project that integrates both design and construction requires forethought and planning. Using the hierarchy of controls as a starting point, this presentation outlines recommended practices for such a program that takes advantage of both design and construction to promote safe work sites.
John Gambatese (Moderator) Professor, Oregon State University
John Gambatese is a professor in the School of Civil and Construction Engineering at Oregon State University. Gambatese’s educational background includes bachelor and master’s degrees in civil engineering from the University of California at Berkeley, and a doctoral degree in civil engineering from the University of Washington. He has worked in industry as a structural engineer in San Francisco, and as a project engineer for a construction management firm in Seattle. He started his current position at Oregon State University in 2000. Gambatese’s research interests are in the broad area of construction engineering and management, and more specifically related to safety, prevention through design, work zone safety, risk and reward, innovation, and sustainable and lean practices. Over his career he has taught courses on a variety of subjects including worker safety, planning and scheduling, contracts and specifications, structural analysis and design, temporary structures, and construction site systems engineering. He is a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) and American Society of Safety Professionals (ASSP). He is a licensed Professional Civil Engineer in California.
Steve Murphy Engineering Leader, 747 Program; and Boeing Commercial Airplane Team Lead, Air Force One Program, The Boeing Company
Steve Murphy graduated from the University of Washington with a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering in 1986 and a Master of Science in Civil Engineering in 1987. He joined The Boeing Company in 1987 as a structures analyst in Boeing Aerospace and then moved to Boeing Commercial Airplanes (BCA) a year later. Since then he has worked on all BCA airplanes including the 737NG & MAX, 747, 757, 767, 777 & 777X and fifteen years on the 787 in a myriad of roles. As well as programs, he has held numerous functional roles in Loads, Structures, Production, Propulsion and Knowledge Based Engineering. He also spent nine years in the process and tool world including the implementation of CATIA V5 and oversaw the entire BCA Computing System. As part of his duties he led the team that brought the groundbreaking Hybrid Laminar Flow Control (HLFC) into production. He spent two years leading the 787-10 Aft Body Engineering team in Everett and South Carolina, while also leading the 787-9 Multi Spar co-cured box in Seattle, Salt Lake City and Foggia, Italy. Murphy is currently the engineering leader for the 747 Program and leads the BCA teams in support of the new Air Force One program. He is very active with the University of Washington as the Boeing focal for the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department. He is a founding member of the Boeing Branch of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) and is currently the Boeing American Society of Civil Engineers Executive Focal as well as a member of the ASCE Industry Leaders Council (ILC). He leads the Safety Committee for the ILC.
Corrie Pitzer Founder and CEO, SafeMap International
Corrie Pitzer is the CEO and founder of SAFEmap International, a company specializing in the psychology of risk, leadership and safety culture. He consults internationally to many corporations, all with occupations in which people can be seriously injured or killed in their work. Corrie enjoys activities such as skydiving and rally car driving, and he was an underground miner and an infantry platoon commander, which makes him a specialist in risk rather than safety. He has Bachelor’s and Honors degrees in Industrial Psychology, an Honors degree in Business Management, an MBA, Graduate Diploma in Education, and is a registered psychometrist. However, he rates the Blasting Ticket as his highest qualification!
Terrance Soodkeo Global Process Safety Technical Advisor, Baker Hughes
Terrance Sookdeo is the global process safety technical advisor for Baker Hughes. He has over 26 years of industry experience. After spending 12 years working at the wellsite as a senior engineer he moved into operations, reliability engineering and risk management. Terrance is trained in industrial engineering, Lean Six Sigma, and business administration.
Breakout Session #2A: The Role of HSE Management Systems
External shareholders, regulators, and communities demand that we deliver flawless safety performance. Continuous improvement in all engineering and industry sectors relies upon structured, disciplined approaches for managing safety, security, health, and environmental aspects of an operation or process. Health, safety, and environment (HSE) management systems provide a platform for sustainability and continuous improvement. This session will address the following aspects of management systems: What is the value of developing and implementing structured management systems? Why is management of change so important? How can management systems help in managing company versus contractor interfaces?
Russell Holmes (Moderator) Director, Center for Offshore Safety
Russell Holmes, the Center for Offshore Safety (COS) Director, serves the U.S. offshore oil and gas industry by leading effective implementation of Safety and Environmental Management Systems (SEMS) to drive continual improvement in safe operations. Captain Holmes retired from the U.S. Coast Guard in 2020 after nearly three decades of service. Just prior to joining COS, Captain Holmes served as the Coast Guard’s senior point of contact for offshore safety, known as the Officer in Charge, Marine Inspection (OCMI), for the U.S. Gulf of Mexico. In this role, he oversaw all marine inspection and investigation activities that ultimately support SEMS. He has a Master of Science in Engineering in Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering and a Master of Engineering in Manufacturing from the University of Michigan and is a certified Project Management Professional (PMP). His military awards include the Defense Meritorious Service Medal, Meritorious Service Medal, Coast Guard Commendation Medal, Army Commendation Medal, Coast Guard Achievement Medal and Commandant’s Letter of Commendation.
Michael Fisher Commander (retired), U.S. Navy
Michael Meighen Director, Corporate Health & Safety, Kinross Gold Corporation
Michael Meighen is a global mining executive with experience leading both domestic and international organizations. Michael grew his career in operations management for both underground and surface sites from the front line supervisor level to vice president of operations. He is currently the director, Corporate Health and Safety for Kinross Gold in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Meighen’s previous positions include global head of Health, Safety and Sustainability for SUEK in the Russian Federation, and director of HSES (Health, Safety, Environmental and Security) for ArcelorMittal Americas and Kazakhstan Regions. He has served as a principal investigator for the U.S. National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health and serves on the CORESafety Advisory Committee of the National Mining Association. He holds a M.S. in Management, a B.S. in Mining Engineering from the University of Kentucky, and is a Registered Professional Engineer Member of the Society for Mining, Metallurgy, and Exploration, Inc. (SME).
Kimberly Walster BBS and Training Specialist, Prairie State Generating Company
Breakout Session #2B: Integration of Safety in Regulator Frameworks
Improving safety culture and performance in any industry not only focuses on internal processes and procedures, but it also requires a healthy partnership between companies responsible for implementing innovative and sustainable safety management systems, regulators who are charged with oversight of those companies, and employees who are expected to work within those systems. The session will explore how industries, regulators, and employees have effectively worked together in the past without compromising a regulator's core mission and role, as well as how best they can build on this partnership in the future to promote a safer workplace. Two examples are OSHA’s Voluntary Protection Programs and MSHA’s Alliance Program.
Hugh Miller (Moderator) Principle Investigator; Energy, Mining and Construction Industry Safety Program, Colorado School of Mines
Sean Baldry Product Marketing Manager, Cority
Douglas Kalinowski Director, Directorate of Cooperative and State Programs, Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA)
Doug Kalinowski is the director of the Directorate of Cooperative and State Programs for the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). In this role, he oversees OSHA’s efforts on compliance assistance, on-site consultation in all U.S. states and territories, alliances, partnerships, exemplary employer recognition, 28 independent state OSHA programs, and international affairs. He is a Certified Industrial Hygienist with bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Michigan.
Breakout Session #2C: Leadership Development
What are the key elements of a strong safety culture, and what can industry leaders do to foster a more effective culture within their organizations? This session will explore this important topic in more detail as well as address related issues, including the role of regulators in promoting a safety culture within companies; the challenges and barrier to worker empowerment; and how companies can more effectively work across cultures. Safety culture requires change that come from the inside-out.
Flavius Brown Vice President, FDR Safety
Breakout Session #3A: University Safety Culture Best Practices and Opportunities
Laboratory operations often combine high-risk work and high-resource investment, due to the nature of research, development, and discovery. Often in a university setting, new users come annually, and “seniority” rarely exceeds four years of experience among students. Academic research labs require consistent diligence toward safety, especially concerning the health of laboratory workers; however, the environmental and health impacts of lab activities are easily overlooked. In many cases, simple changes in policy, habit, or process can both increase safety in the workplace and improve resource efficiency.
John Howarter (Moderator) Associate Professor, Materials Engineering, Purdue University
Chris Coles Associate Director of the School of Engineering Safety and Risk Management, University of Alberta
Chris Coles (MEng, CSP) is the Associate Director of the School of Engineering Safety and Risk Management at the University of Alberta. Prior to joining the university, Chris held EHS leadership roles with several companies. He has worked with national and international SHES legislation for multiple jurisdictions. He employs engineering safety and risk management principles to a broad spectrum of industry trends and challenges. His current focus is on leveraging his extensive industrial experience to deliver high quality teaching to engineering students.
Mark McLellan Vice President of Research & Innovation, University of North Texas
Mark R. McLellan is serving as vice president for research and innovation at the University of North Texas, a leading MSI/HIS designated research university of North Texas. He oversees research across 10 colleges and schools enrolling almost 40,000 students including 6,000 students seeking graduate training.
McLellan has worked briefly Portland State University, the urban serving research university of Portland. Previously he served as Vice President for Research and Graduate Studies at Utah State University and worked with Utah representatives to orchestrate a multi-year, major new infusion of state funding for support of graduate students at USU. He oversaw a university-wide review and overhaul of USU graduate programs. He also helped build a major research expansion and record level of research funding at USU. At the University of Florida, he was appointed as a dean and served six years. At Texas A&M Univ. he served as research center director for six years. And over an 18-year period, he launched his academic career and was tenured at Cornell University where he also served as department chair.
He previously chaired the US Food & Drug Administration Science Advisory Board for three years dealing with complex issues such as the opioid epidemic in the US. He served on this board for 10 years. Additionally, McLellan was selected in 2016 as the inaugural chair of the US Dept. of Agriculture’s Science Advisory Council while serving on the USDA NAREEE Board. He co-chaired the APLU/AAU Task Force on Laboratory Safety and he served as a member of the APLU/AAU Task Force on Public Access.
Kevin J. Rader Electrical Safety Program Manager, Argonne National Laboratory
Breakout Session #3B: Effectively Managing Complex Systems
With the onset of innovative engineering solutions to technical problems and the application of increasingly complex technology in engineering, it is important to understand the roles and limitations of automation that should be considered as part of the equipment and process design. Key among these considerations are the human factors that should be addressed, as well as the challenges and effective management of human-machine interfaces.
Richard Sears (Moderator) Adjunct Professor, Stanford University
Richard Sears is adjunct professor in the Department of Energy Resources Engineering at Stanford University. He began his career as a geophysicist in Houston with Shell Oil Company in 1976. During his 33 years with Shell Oil Co. and Royal Dutch Shell, Sears acquired significant domestic and international experience in the upstream oil and gas industry, holding technical and managerial positions including exploration geophysicist, technical instructor, economist, strategic advisor and planner, and general management. In 2010, he joined the staff of the National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling as senior science and engineering advisor and chief scientist and is a co-author of the Commission’s Chief Counsel’s Report which details the technical and managerial failures leading to the blowout and spill. Sears is currently a member of the Advisory Board of the Gulf Research Program, a 30-year, science-based research program administered by the National Academy of Sciences that is focused on offshore energy system safety and the protection of human health and the environment. He is also a member of the National Academy of Engineering Committee reviewing the U.S. Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement’s offshore oil and gas facility inspection program.
He received his bachelor’s degree in physics and master’s degree in geophysics from Stanford University and is a licensed Professional Geoscientist in the State of Texas.
Phil Grossweiler Principal Consultant, M&H Corporate Outreach
Camille Peres Associate Professor, Texas A&M University
S. Camille Peres is an associate professor with environmental and occupational health at Texas A&M University, and she is also the assistant director of human systems engineering with the Mary Kay O’Connor Process Safety Center. She does collaborative research on human factors and high-risk processing industry such as the oil and gas industry, chemical processing, and emergency response. She is currently involved in investigations regarding performance implications for procedure design and use; understanding human robotic Interaction in disaster environments; and measuring team performance in emergency operations.
Venkat Venkatasubramanian Professor, Columbia University
Venkat Venkatasubramanian is the Samuel Ruben-Peter G. Viele Professor of Engineering in the Department of Chemical Engineering, professor of computer science (affiliate), and professor of industrial engineering and operations research (affiliate) at Columbia University. He earned his doctoral degree in chemical engineering at Cornell University, master’s degree in physics at Vanderbilt, and bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering at the University of Madras, India. He taught at Purdue University for 23 years, before returning to Columbia in 2011. Venkat is a complex dynamical systems theorist interested in developing mathematical models of their structure, function, and behavior from fundamental conceptual principles. Venkat's research interests are diverse, ranging from AI to systems engineering to theoretical physics to economics, but they are generally focused on the theme of understanding complexity and emergent behavior in different domains. His contributions have been in fault diagnosis, process safety, materials analytics, pharmaceutical engineering, and complex adaptive systems. He is a past president of the CACHE Corporation. He currently serves as an Editor for Computers and Chemical Engineering. His book, How Much Inequality is Fair? Mathematical Principles of a Moral, Optimal, and Stable Capitalist Society, was published in 2017.
Breakout Session #3C: Leadership for Today’s 24/7 Problems
With most injuries and accidental deaths occurring outside the workplace, many organizations are trying to determine how their current safety management system could protect their employees 24 hours a day, seven days a week. For most companies, the cost of off-the-job injuries is higher than the cost of injuries that occur on the job, and command-and-control strategies have had little positive effect. Employees need to be introduced to practical tools that can be used every day to reduce injuries both on and off the job. This session will teach you how to recognize the repeated critical errors we make in virtually all injuries and drastically reduce injuries 24/7. Note: The session leader collects opinion data on the topic of his sessions to produce a report on the scope of the issues as perceived by the participants. Please bring a pen with you to this session.
Don Wilson Chief Operating Officer, SafeStart
Breakout Session #4A: Funding Effective Partnerships for Improving Safety
Improving safety is a significant investment in the intellectual capital of an organization. Safety improvements are often coupled with additional benefits to an organization in terms of improved management and communication and increases in productivity. Achieving the benefits of an improved safety culture can be a long-term and occasionally disruptive task. This session focuses on strategies and resources for organizations to find effective external partners to assist with transforming a safety culture. Discussion of funding sources, access to research and training materials, and effective coaching and consulting approaches will be discussed.
Michael Karmis (Moderator) Stonie Barker Professor, Department of Mining and Minerals Engineering, and Director, Virginia Center for Coal and Energy Research, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
Michael Karmis is the Stonie Barker Professor of the Department of Mining and Minerals Engineering and the Director of the Virginia Center for Coal and Energy Research (VCCER) at Virginia Tech. His expertise is in the areas of geomechanics and mine systems, health and safety, carbon management and energy planning, and the sustainable development of energy and mineral resources. He has authored/co-authored over 180 scientific papers and directed more than 62 major projects with funding in excess of $60 million. His research has been funded by federal and state agencies, foundations, and the private sector. A Professional Engineer (P.E.) in the USA and an Eur Ing in Europe, Karmis is an active consultant to the global mining industry, academic and research institutions, government agencies, engineering companies, and financial and legal firms.
Karmis served as the 2002 President of the Society for Mining, Metallurgy and Exploration (SME) and as the 2008 President of the American Institute of Mining, Metallurgical and Petroleum Engineers (AIME). He was elected as the 2002 President of the Society of Mining Professors (SOMP)-Societät der Bergbaukunde and served from 2005 to 2012 as the Society’s Secretary General. He is an Honorary Member of AIME, a Distinguished Member of SME, a Fellow of the Institute of Quarrying, and a Fellow of the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining. He has received numerous awards and recognitions by major scientific, educational, professional and industrial organizations.
Jim Pettigrew Director, NASEM Gulf Research Program
Retired Navy Captain Jim Pettigrew is the principal investigator and director of operations for the Ocean Energy Safety Institute (OESI). A partnership between Texas A&M University, University of Houston, and University of Texas – Austin; OESI provides a forum for dialogue, shared learning and cooperative research among academia, government, industry and other non-governmental organizations. OESI’s focus is offshore-related technologies and activities that help ensure safer and environmentally responsible offshore operations. Jim assumed the position of director in May 2014, and principal investigator in December 2018. Throughout his three decades in the Navy, Pettigrew worked predominantly in operational oceanography, surface warfare and information warfare; managing and mitigating risk at all levels of operations. He served most recently as chief of staff for the commander, Naval Meteorology and Oceanography Command where he was responsible for the direction and leadership of a team of 150 people, executing a $300 million annual budget, the operations of 4,000 personnel worldwide, the nation's Master Clock, two world-class supercomputing facilities, and six military Oceanographic Survey Ships. He also had the privilege and honor of serving as the commanding officer for the Navy’s Global Atmospheric and Ocean Modeling Supercomputing Center (Fleet Numerical, in Monterey, California) and as the Commanding Officer for the Navy’s only forward deployed Operational Oceanography support center in Yokosuka, Japan. He served twice in the Pentagon and was joint-qualified serving with the U.S. Space Command in Colorado Springs. Pettigrew received his master’s degree in physical oceanography and meteorology from the Naval Postgraduate School and received his bachelor’s degree in ocean engineering from Texas A&M University.
Gord Winkel Director, School of Engineering Safety and Risk Management
Retired as a vice-president for Syncrude Canada Ltd., Gord Winkel, P. Eng., MSc., joined the University of Alberta in 2010 as chair and industrial professor for the Safety and Risk Management Program in the Faculty of Engineering. In this capacity he provides safety and risk management education to final year engineering students and has worked to make this a core competency requirement for all engineering disciplines. In April of 2016, Gord was announced as director of the David and Joan Lynch School of Engineering Safety and Risk Management.
Gord has worked extensively in the oil sands mining industry. He joined the Imperial Oil/ExxonMobil organization as a vice-president on loan from Syncrude Canada Ltd. to advance the Kearl Oil Sands Project. Gord was vice-president, Aurora Bitumen Production at Syncrude Canada Ltd., served as general manager of Extraction, was manager of Extraction Operations and formerly manager of Mine Maintenance/Operations, again with Syncrude.
His work to improve workplace safety led to a Distinguished Lecturer Award from the Canadian Institute of Mining (CIM) in 2002. His work to advance the surface mining industry through sharing knowledge, technology, best practices and innovation has led to a second Distinguished Lecturer Award in 2008. A third such award was received in 2013 for leadership in advancing safety excellence in the global mining industry. In 2019, Gord was awarded the national CIM Mining Safety Leadership Medal recognizing exceptional contribution by an individual or organization towards improving mining health and safety results within the mining industry in Canada through innovative means.
Gord serves as the Chair of the Canadian Corps of Commissionaires Northern Alberta, Northwest Territories and Nunavut Division. On the healthcare front, Gord is a member of the Alberta Health Services Quality and Safety Advisory Committee reporting to the Alberta Health Services Board. He is also supporting the Alberta Agriculture Industry as an Executive Advisor on the AgSafe Alberta Board. In addition, he chairs the University of Alberta BioSafety Committee, the Enhanced Biocontainment Standing Committee and the Engineering Faculty Safety Committee.
Gord supports the Canadian Institute of Mining through chairing the J.T. Ryan Mining Safety Committee and as a board member for their newly established Safety Society. Provincially Gord is an Executive Advisor for the Alberta Mining Safety Association. Gord also works to provide support in safety, risk management and organization effectiveness to firms and boards across Canada.
Breakout Session #4B: Unmanned Aircraft Systems: The Changing Face of Risk in Facility and Infrastructure Inspections
Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS), commonly known as drones, are being used increasingly for inspections of industrial facilities and infrastructure, as well as other applications such as mapping and seismic surveys. The utilization of this new technology to perform inspections and surveys has proven to be more cost-effective than traditional inspection methods or techniques such as using helicopters or temporary structures. Additionally, this new method for inspection can reduce the risk of exposure to hostile environments and enhance safety. New technology is rapidly being developed and adopted for drone inspections aiding in better and more efficient detection of flaws and defects. Along with the safety benefits of using drones come new challenges and potential risks. This discussion will cover uses of drones in inspections, new technologies for detecting issues such as flaws and defects, and how to ensure that the drone pilot is qualified and capable of safe and professional flight.
Lori Guasta (Moderator) Colorado School of Mines; Member, National Safety Council Initiative on Work to Zero
Ryan Hyatt Area Manager, Edward C. Levy Company
Ryan Hyatt works for the Edw. C. Levy Co. in the steel mill services division as an area manager in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Prior to this assignment, Ryan worked as a manager, supervisor, and analyst for Levy in Butler, Indiana and Dearborn, Michigan. Before joining Levy, Ryan served 10 years in the U.S. Air Force as a KC-135R instructor pilot logging more than 3,000 hours total flight time in the T-37 Tweet, T-1 Jayhawk, and KC-135R StratoTanker aircraft. Ryan flew 330 total combat missions in Operation Iraqi Freedom (Iraq) and Operation Enduring Freedom (Afghanistan) earning multiple Air Medals. He earned his bachelor’s degree from the United States Air Force Academy and his master’s degree in organizational leadership from American Military University. Additionally, Ryan was selected to attend the High Potentials Leadership Program at Harvard Business School. Ryan has a commercial UAV license and flies monthly to safely perform various organizational functions. He currently resides in Indiana with his wife Erica and four young children.
Tracy L. Lamb Doctoral Candidate, Aviation Safety and Human Factors, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University
Tracy L. Lamb (BA, MBA, ATPL, CFI, CFII, MEI, Dip Aviation Law, FRAeS) has twenty-seven years of commercial aviation experience. She was an international airline pilot (Boeing 737), certified flight instructor (CFII), experienced corporate jet and charter pilot, with over 7,000 flight hours. She is also a certified commercial UAS pilot (FAA Part 107 & CASA Part 101). She is a highly experienced lead aviation safety auditor on helicopter operators, airlines, charter companies, and unmanned aircraft operators and was the global manager for unmanned safety and certification for SGS Aerospace, based out of London and New York. She created and led the Unmanned Inspection Capabilities in the Netherlands, France, United Kingdom, South Africa, Spain, Canada South America, and the U.S.
Lamb was the vice president of regulatory and safety affairs and chief pilot for AUVSI, and developed the world-first certification program for UAS operators, the Trusted Operator Program (TOP). TOP won industry awards and has been implemented by UNICEF in South Africa, and is part of the Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University's Master of Science (UAS) program.
Nominated by the UK CAA, and AUVSI, Lamb actively participated as a member of the ICAO RPAS Panel and the UAS Advisory Group from 2015-2020; she served as chair of two working groups for the Australian CASA 2014-2015. Lamb represented AUVSI on the FAA Unmanned Aircraft Safety Team (UAST), the Aviation Rule Making Committee for airspace integration, and the JARUS sub-committee. She is due to graduate from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical university with a Ph.D in Aviation Safety and Human Factors in 2021-22.
Mike Wilson General Aviation & Commercial Division, Federal Aviation Administration Safety Team
Breakout Session #4C: The Day We Will Remember: Safety Leadership on a Personal Level
We all are taught to feel safety on a personal level, but we often fail to realize the effect our decisions and of those around us play on the circle of people in our lives. This session is designed to bring to light the impact of a real steel mill incident’s impact on not only the injured but also the coworkers, family members, and others who work and live with us daily. The session highlights the effects when we play “Russian Roulette” with our lives by making hasty and unwise decisions, both on and off the job. This session delivers the key point that how we make daily decisions, if not properly assessing the risk, could negatively impact those around us for whom we care about. It is a moving and emotional session hosted by a career steel-industry expert with the knowledge and experience to talk directly about good decision making.
Ricky Rollins Founder, Ricky Rollins Safety Speeches, and Melting Department Manager (Retired), Steel Dynamics
Graduated from Clemson University 1980 with a B.S. in Administrative Management. Started career in the steel industry with Nucor Steel in 1980. Held various hourly and salary jobs with Nucor and two refractory companies his first 14 years. The last 22 years in the steel industry were with Steel Dynamics Butler Flat Roll Division. The last 19 of those years were as the Melting Department Manager. Retired from Steel Dynamics in January of 2017 and started his own company, Ricky Rollins Safety Speeches. Was awarded the Don B. Daily Safety Award in 2018 for the best safety presentation at an Association for Iron & Steel Technology.
Networking Reception
The program committee invites all registrants to enjoy refreshments at the welcome reception.