The Safety Executive: Recent Episodes
Nathan Byrne
Each week, Nathan Byrne (Founder & Director of The Safety Executive) will invite a guest onto his Podcast who will fit one of the following profiles:
- They are leading the WH&S (or equivalent) function of an Aust or international business
- They are leading the HR, People & Culture function of an Aust or international business
- They are a Key Contributor or Thought Leader within the Safety profession.
Nathan has close to 20,000 1st connection LinkedIn contacts, providing his guests with a large Australian and international platform. The “Leaders in Safety” weekly Podcast will cover the below topics, providing interesting and useful insights for its audience, whether that be:
- People who hold leadership roles, both within and external to the Safety profession
- People in lower to middle mgt safety roles who aspire to be a GM or Executive within Safety
- People who are considering a career in Safety, or Consultants to the Safety profession
Topics for Functional Heads of Work Health and Safety (or equivalent):
- What has been the biggest positive change in Work Health and Safety that you have seen during your career?
- What are you most disappointed about? What do we need to quickly get better at /
- You don’t get to your level without having built great teams around you. What have been your strategies for attracting, retaining, and developing the best talent in the market?
- Leading an organization on its Safety journey requires significant stakeholder influencing, from the boardroom through to the shop floor. What are your top ‘tips and tricks' on how to go about this?
- I am talking to Safety executives on a daily basis, and a consistent story I hear is what they were led to believe about a role they were interviewing for….was very different in reality once they started. Either the business was not in great shape from a safety perspective, there were complex people issues or other things were at play, exponentially increasing their challenges in their first 6-12 months. What advice can you provide for people who want to conduct their own audit on a business (ie what are the best indicators to judge on where a company is at on their safety journey) before deciding to accept a role?
- Who has had the biggest impact on your development as a safety professional?
- What has been the most rewarding part of your role as a senior safety leader/executive?
- What is the single best bit of advice you can give to Safety professionals aspiring to be a GM or Executive in the future?
Catherine has worked at RailCorp, Coca-Cola Amatil and is now with the Swiss-Swedish giant ABB, a global leader in automation and controls. We talk through her role as a key facilitator across the many countries and cultures ABB covers, and how she manages a global remit based out of Sydney. Catherine provides her insights into influencing, attracting people and working on a critical mental health project.
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Linda has covered many geographies in her safety career within the energy sector, including the UK, Europe, Myanmar, UAE and Borneo. She shares with us her current focus on the Hydrogen sector, and what has kept her connected to the broader energy space all this time.
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Dr Peter Simpson has packed a lot into his 25 year career. From starting as a pilot and then working with Qantas, Cathay Pacific, Jetstar and Singapore Airlines in Health & Safety roles across Asia Pacific, through to managing a global remit with Standard Chartered Bank....he has accomplished many things (not to mention a long list of academic achievements!). I sit down with Peter to discuss this fascinating journey, including how he manages a global role with a UK based bank, as well as what positives he has seen come out of the Covid pandemic.
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Rebekah has had an exciting career, from working for the Air Force, Qantas and John Holland, through to living and working in China, Thailand and the US with Goodyear over an 8 year period. We discuss her interesting safety journey, including her last 15 months at Sunrice.
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This week I sit down with Andy who is Global Head of Health, Safety, Security and Environment at Cushman & Wakefield, a Chicago based company with over 50,000 staff across 400 offices in 70 countries and over $8 billion in revenue. We discuss what it is like to hold a global role based out of Sydney, and how he goes about managing teams based all over the world.
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Brian has had a fascinating career having lived and worked in Spain with AECOM and in the UK with Leandlease. In this episode, we discuss both positive change and improvements still needed, we gain insights on talent development, and look at the differences between major infrastructure and complex consumer retail when it comes to safety, health and wellbeing. Finally, we touch on the impact Covid has had at Woolworths.
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Throughout June and July our theme is 'Global', with my guests having either lived and worked overseas in a senior safety role, or have held a global remit. In this episode, I talk with Paul Stevens, GM Safety & Assurance at Transdev Australasia. We discuss the differences between working in the Middle East and Australia, as well as the challenges faced when working for such a large and complex business such as DP World.
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In this episode, we discuss what has been the biggest positive change Melissa has seen in WHS, and what we still need to get better at. She talks about her strategies for developing great talent, stakeholder influencing, and what to look for in a company when interviewing for a senior role. We also cover who has had the biggest impact on her career, and what advice can be given to Safety professionals aspiring to be a GM or Executive in the future.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.