FSI
Prevention

Kurt Krueger

Crisis Prevention
& Response

Chris Hart

Process
Safety

Bill Hoyle

OSHA
Compliance

Rich Fairfax, CIH

Mergers Acquisitions
& EHS

Bill Williams

HRO & HOP
Performance

Lisa Brooks

Audits &
Management Systems

Frank Szopinski, CIH, CSP

Recordkeeping
& Measurement

Stephen Newell, JD

True North in HSE for over 45 Years

For thousands of years, sailors and travelers have looked to Polaris –the North Star– to find their way across vast oceans, endless swaths of barren deserts, impenetrable forests, forbidding rock-laiden terrain, and eventually back home. In this vain, we have created the Centers of Excellence: an evolution of our Consulting Services, and a guiding light for companies and organizations in HSE seeking growth, knowledge and superior service. [ Continue reading… ]

“Ad praestantiam ducere”

Each ORC HSE Center of Excellence has been conceived, organized & coordinated by our subject matter experts. These Center Originators, along with our Executive Vice President for Consulting, Bill Williams, have handpicked the very best consultants & service providers in our industry to be on the ground with your team & company when needed.

We’ve been told many times that the depth and breadth of our talent pool is unparalleled in the field. And while we humbly –graciously– accept the compliment, we remain excited, eager, and proud to share our talents with you.

The Evolution of Service: ORC HSE’s Consulting Service was established in response to requests from members looking for the same high-quality service that they received through the ORC HSE networks, custom tailored to meet their individual needs. As a result, a fee-based consulting service was established that leverages value generated by the networks and relationships ORC HSE maintains with Agency heads and key thought leaders in our profession. Heavy demand from members, companies and the general public for experience, expertise and superior quality service has led to an evolution in our consulting services; thus the Centers of Excellence were born. We hope you’ll find each Center to be a paragon of service in their fields, and an invaluable resource for years to come.

“Ad praestantiam ducere” -latin: To lead one to excellence.

Center for Fatality & Serious Incident (FSI) Prevention

There is a renaissance in safety and health thinking. The change is being driven by the growing realization that techniques that have worked well over the years to reduce overall OSHA injury and illness rates have not had a similar impact on the injuries and illnesses that cause the greatest loss and human suffering. Fatalities, life-threatening events, and severe injuries and illnesses that are life altering continue at unacceptable levels. The ongoing loss is attributed to the insufficiency of current approaches and to several concepts that have underpinned our profession for decades that may actually be barriers to serious injury and illness prevention.

ORC HSE has been working with member companies for more than a decade to identify more effective approaches to managing risk with high severity potential. The consulting service offerings include:

Identifying situations that have a greater likelihood of resulting in a fatality or serious injury or illness

Finding better ways to set priorities for addressing those situations

Developing effective hazard mitigation strategies that determine appropriate levels of control, layers of control, and degree of protection.

Addressing the site/process issues that increase the risk and undermine controls.

Kurt Krueger

Kurt has more than 35 years of experience developing and implementing effective health and safety programs. Prior to joining ORC HSE, Kurt Krueger spent over two decades leading development and implementation of global health & safety programs for the General Electric Company.

Responsibilities for GE included improving how the company addressed work activity involving risk with high severity potential, and improving how the company managed risk through the introduction and implementation of human and organizational performance principles. Before GE, Kurt was with International Technology Corporation where his responsibilities included regional EHS leader, operations manager for hazardous substance spill response services, operations and general manager for a major regional environmental services division, and corporate director of health & safety.

He has a Bachelor of Arts, Biology, California State University, Northridge, 1978, and a Master of Science, Environmental and Occupational Health & Safety, California State University, Northridge, 1980, and a Master of Business Administration, Pepperdine University, 1988. He is certified in the Comprehensive Practice of Industrial Hygiene, American Board of Industrial Hygiene.

Center for Crisis Prevention & Response

Nothing is worse than experiencing a catastrophic event that involves serious injury or death. Aside from the unforgettable human toll, the business impacts from these events are often staggering. The good news is that they can be prevented, and if they do occur, their impact can be minimized. However, that requires a different approach from traditional safety.

There is growing recognition that catastrophic events frequently result from a different set of contributing factors than those related to personal safety. Consequently, a company or site may have low OSHA injury and illness rates and yet may still be vulnerable to a catastrophic event.

The ORC HSE Consulting Service has the expertise on staff to help companies effectively prevent catastrophic events. By taking an informed systems-based approach to prevention, companies can increase the likelihood that the factors leading up to a catastrophic event can be identified and addressed.

When these events regrettably do happen, ORC HSE can help companies respond effectively to minimize damage and leverage lessons learned that will prevent re-occurrence. Responding to and learning from incidents are key characteristics of high-reliability organizations. That includes:

Containing additional loss

Minimizing disruption to ongoing operations

Identifying the causes and contributing factors that led to the incident

Developing learnings and preventive measures that can prevent reoccurrence.

Chris Hart

Chris Hart has years of experience leading the federal Agency responsible for responding to the most serious transportation incidents. He served on the National Transportation Safety Board for eight years, initially appointed as a Member of the Board on August 12, 2009 and designated by the President for a 2-year term as its Vice Chairman on August 18, 2009.

In August 2013, the President nominated him for a second term as Board Member and, after Senate confirmation of his nomination, the President, in October 2013, designated him for a third term as Vice Chairman. He began serving as Acting NTSB Chairman on April 26, 2014 and in July 2014 was nominated by the President to serve as Chairman of the NTSB. Chris was appointed Chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board on March 16, 2015.

Chris joined the Board after a long career in transportation safety, including a previous term as a member of the NTSB. He was Deputy Director for Air Traffic Safety Oversight at the Federal Aviation Administration. He was previously the FAA Assistant Administrator for the Office of System Safety. Chris has a law degree from Harvard Law School and a Master’s Degree (magna cum laude) in Aerospace Engineering from Princeton University. He is a member of the District of Columbia Bar and the Lawyer Pilots Bar Association, and he is a pilot with commercial, multi engine, and instrument rating.

Center for Process Safety

Many companies focus on personal safety without paying sufficient attention to elements of process safety that are not adequately in place or that may have degraded over time. As a result, while OSHA injury and illness rates have declined in recent years, the rates for fatal and serious cases have remained generally stable. ORC HSE is equipped to help our clients recognize and address gaps in their process safety programs. Services include:

Process Hazard Analysis

PSM and RMP Audit and Compliance Review

PSM and RMP Program Development

Training and Implementation

Bill Hoyle

Bill Hoyle has more than 30 years of experience in process safety and the investigation of major incidents. In the 1990s, he was on the Wharton School of Business roundtable on major accident prevention as well as the EPA Experts’ Delegation that studied European safety practices while touring Germany. He was a co-founder of U.S. Chemical Safety Board (CSB) operations in 1998.

Bill lead the CSB investigation of the 2005 fire and explosions at BP Texas City refinery that killed 15 and injured 180. He was senior investigator for the CSB’s investigation of the Deepwater Horizon disaster as well as the West, Texas fertilizer explosion that killed 15 responders. He was a member of the National Academy of Sciences panel that studied safety culture in the offshore energy industry.

Recently Bill was an expert adviser to CalOSHA and CalEPA on revisions to their regulations for oil refineries. He provided extensive training for California state and local government refinery safety inspectors.

He is a peer reviewer of the California Council on Science and Technology report on the safety of underground natural gas storage facilities. Bill is an alternate member of the ANSI Z-10 Committee on Occupational Health and Safety Management Systems.

Bill studied Investigative Journalism at Bowling Green State University in Ohio where he received the Scripps Howard Foundation Merit Scholarship Award.

Center for OSHA Compliance

Business growth, acquisitions, employee turnover, and competing priorities often create situations where OSHA compliance is adversely impacted. Let us be your partner in Compliance Assurance. Our Compliance Assurance services include:

HSE Compliance Auditing

HSE Compliance Auditor Certification Training (3 days)

OSHA Compliance Training – majority of key standards

Intervention Support Services in response to NOVs

Severe Violator Enforcement Program (SVEP) support

Global regulatory standards support, including Country Profiles for an the most common international business locations

Rich Fairfax, CIH

Prior to joining ORC HSE, Rich Fairfax was the Deputy Assistant Secretary at OSHA in charge of enforcement, field programs, standards development, construction, maritime, and enforcement of all federal whistleblower operations. Prior to that he led the Directorate of Enforcement Programs, first as the Deputy Director and then as the head of that Directorate.

In those three roles he led OSHA enforcement operations for over 15 years – longer than anyone in the Agency’s history. Rich also has extensive field experience, working in various field offices as a compliance officer from 1977 to 1994. It is safe to say that no one understands the inner workings of the Agency, especially its enforcement arm, better than Rich Fairfax.

From 1993 through 2010, Rich wrote an industrial hygiene column entitled “OSHA Compliance Issues” for the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene. He still serves on its Editorial Review Board and conducts peer review of Journal articles.

Rich holds a Master of Arts degree in Zoology from Humboldt State University in Arcata, California and a Bachelor of Science degree in Biology from Cal Poly State University in San Luis Obispo, California. He is certified in comprehensive practice of Industrial Hygiene.

Center for Mergers, Acquisitions, and HSE Organizational Design

The one constant these days is change. Companies continue to experience significant organizational change through mergers & acquisitions, divestitures, or the need to achieve efficiencies through cost-cutting, streamlining and organizational alignment with new growth strategies.

Even companies with superior and stable HSE functions are being impacted. When these events happen our clients often need guidance and technical support to arrive at the optimum HSE organizational design, staffing requirements, resource and funding allocation, integration planning, and making the business case to executive leadership.

ORC HSE has years of experience helping companies to address organizational issues and navigate change. In addition to experienced consultants with M&A and organizational development backgrounds, ORC HSE has a large pool of sophisticated and successful companies to draw from if benchmarking services are needed.

Bill Williams

As the leader of the ORC HSE Consulting Service as well as this Center, Bill focuses on the fulfilling client consulting needs, ensuring customer satisfaction, and developing a team of international Health, Safety and Environment (HSE) subject matter experts. He has the lead role in developing insightful and innovative approaches to client challenges, creating consulting tools and techniques, and adapting ORC HSE’s thought leadership concepts into practical assessment tools, training, and intervention techniques.

Bill has a unique set of work experiences in operations and HSE leadership. As a senior career naval officer, Bill developed expertise in marine engineering, combat systems, strategic planning and crisis management. In his 27-year naval career he taught leadership at the U.S. Naval Academy; commanded two destroyers and a guided missile cruiser; led fleet operations for a major U.S. Fleet; served as a Battle Group Chief of Staff, and worked on the Joint Staff at the Pentagon, focused on counterterrorism and crisis management.

Following naval service Bill served as Vice President, HSE, for A.P. Moller-Maersk, the world’s largest shipping company, with responsibility for HSE oversight in shipping, marine terminal operations, integrated logistics and supply chain safety in the Americas. He developed and executed a strategy that achieved major reductions in personal injury and operational disruptions and achieved the near-elimination of fatal and serious injury events. In the environmental area, he presided over key programs to vastly reduce carbon emissions from ships and ensured Maersk maintained a leadership position in environmental stewardship. He is a member of the National Maritime Safety Association, is Chairman Emeritus of the Conference Board’s EHS Council, and has served with the National Safety Council as a member of the Board of Trustees, Board of Delegates, World Class Team, and Campbell Institute.

Center to Promote High Reliability (HRO) & Excellence in Human & Organizational Performance (HOP)

Prevention efforts historically have been centered on the interaction between the hazard, the controls, and the employee who has been injured or made ill. Emphasis has been on compliance and on holding workers accountable for their actions. Corrective actions have traditionally focused on “fixing” the injured/ill employee who “messed up,” largely through retraining or by applying more administrative controls. Deficiencies in that approach have led to a growing belief that a new paradigm for preventing incidents is needed.

The new paradigm involves a richer understanding of how work actually gets done, consideration of the context in which employees must cope with hazards, and assessment of an organization’s capacity to deal with risk. Human and organizational performance (HOP) factors can be identified and addressed (e.g., cultural characteristics, management system gaps, process conditions, etc.) that often undermine defenses and elevate the risk. Much has been written on this emerging body of thought. The challenge is in finding ways to integrate the concepts into ongoing operations.

Lisa Brooks

Lisa has over 25 years of experience in health & safety. Prior to joining ORC HSE, Lisa was the Global Manager of Safety & Ergonomics Programs for GE. In this role, she provided leadership, oversight and principal technical expertise in human & organizational performance, ergonomics, and health & safety management to manufacturing, service, entertainment and finance operations that included more than 320,000 employees in over 100 countries.

She began her career as a corporate ergonomist for Alcoa and then spent over 11 years in Corporate Health & Safety with International Paper, where her final position was the Global Manager of Health & Safety Regulatory Affairs.

Lisa holds Master of Science degrees in Industrial & Operations Engineering and in Kinesiology, both from the University of Michigan, and Bachelor of Arts degrees in Mathematics and Fitness from Cornell College.

She is a Certified Industrial Ergonomist and is a member of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society and the Institute of Industrial Engineers. She served on the Industrial Advisory Board for the Department of Industrial & Manufacturing Engineering at the University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee for 7 years, and has served on the Program Committee for the Applied Ergonomics Conference since 2005 and been the program chair since 2015.

Center for Audits & Management System Assessments

HSE Audits are important to ensure the success of your HSE initiatives for many reasons. Periodic audits provide an overall evaluation of the current state of your programs and help you identify potential HSE issues before they become a problem. They also provide a measurement of areas where sites may be struggling to maintain company compliance due to resource issues or limited knowledge of requirements. Also, regulatory compliance issues identified by audits can be corrected prior to interaction by regulatory agencies. Finally audits provide a unique learning opportunity for those involved.

ORCHSE can provide assistance in the completion of compliance audits, management systems audits or develop a custom combination. Our Compliance Assurance services include:

Leading a team of ORCHSE consultants or company personnel

Serving as an audit team member in audits lead by company staff

Assistance in the development of corrective actions

Assistance in the tracking of findings to closure

Completion of HSE perception surveys

HSE Audit training

Frank Szopinski, CIH, CSP

Prior to joining ORCHSE Frank was the Audit Manager (Compliance Assurance) for the US healthcare company, Abbott headquartered in the Chicago Illinois area. He has over 25 years of professional experience in HSE Program Leadership in the pharmaceutical, food, medical products and waste industries.

Mr. Szopinski has lead and/or participated in over one hundred audits spanning six continents. His audit experience includes manufacturing, warehouse, commercial and laboratory locations. He holds a Master Degree in Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences from the University of Illinois- Chicago and a Master of Business Administration from Dominican University. Frank is a Certified Safety Professional (CSP) and Certified Industrial Hygienist (CIH).

Center for OSHA Recordkeeping & Performance Measurement

Electronic Recordkeeping, enhanced penalties, public access to your injury and illness information — the case for mastering OSHA Recordkeeping is stronger than ever. ORC HSE is the leading HSE consultancy for OSHA Recordkeeping training, auditing and program assessment. Among our recordkeeping and performance metrics service offerings:

OSHA Recordkeeping Program Assessments

Recordkeeping Audits

Advanced Recordkeeping Certification Course (2 days)

Intermediate OSHA Recordkeeping Course (1 day)

Training in predictive indicators and alternate metrics

International Recordkeeping training (ASTM E2920-14)

Stephen Newell, JD

Steve, a Partner of ORCHSE Strategies, LLC. has been working with recordkeeping and metrics issues for over three decades. Prior to joining ORC HSE (formerly known as ORC Worldwide, and Mercer HSE Networks) he was on the Executive Staff of the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), responsible for data programs that targeted OSHA programmed inspections and measured Agency performance. Before OSHA he headed the on-going safety and health statistical programs for the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).

In both capacities he had responsibility for the nationwide OSHA injury and illness record keeping system, authoring the “Record keeping Guidelines for Occupational Injuries and Illnesses” many know as the “OSHA Bluebook;” more than a million copies were distributed nationwide. For the past 20 years he has been assisting member companies in meeting their OSHA recordkeeping requirements as well as identifying leading metrics that effectively assess and drive health and safety performance. Steve headed the work group that developed ASTM E2920-14, a new set of global outcome metrics that was adopted as a global standard in 2014. He currently serves as the vice chair of the ANSI Z.16 work group on safety and health performance measurement.

Steve obtained his B.S. degree in economics from the Robert H. Smith School of Business, University of Maryland and his J.D. degree from the Columbus School of Law, Catholic University. He is a past member of the District of Columbia and Maryland State Bars.

Contact the Centers of Excellence

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