Change afoot in Step Change in Safety
July 2011
Step Change in Safety has announced changes to its leadership team, with two new co-chairs: Martin Ellins of KCA Deutag and Ken Robertson of Shell U.K. Limited. The moves follow both the recent retirement of Talisman Energy’s John Forrest and the decision of Schlumberger’s Gordon Ballard to step down.
Martin Ellins of KCA Deutag
Martin Ellins, country manager UK with KCA Deutag, has over 35 years of experience in the worldwide oil and gas industry. He joined the Step Change leadership team in 2009 and was a member of its workforce engagement workgroup. Martin is a Chartered Engineer, fellow of the Energy Institute, and sits on the Board of the International Association of Drilling Contractors (UK Chapter) Board.
Mr Ellins believes the role of the workforce will be vital in Step Change’s efforts to foster an improved safety culture. He said: “The oil and gas industry values the input of our workforce into safety and we know that a fully engaged and involved workforce is one of the most crucial factors in creating a safety culture. This year we will launch a survey tool to enable workforce engagement to be assessed at work sites. We believe this will greatly help managers to drive positive changes in how they communicate with the workforce and encourage a constructive safety culture in staff.”
Ken Robertson of Shell U.K. Limited
Ken Robertson is the central and northern North Sea asset leader at Shell U.K. Limited. He has a wealth of global experience gained with the company over a 30 year career. He has been involved with the Step Change in Safety leadership team since 2009, becoming co-chair of the Helicopter Safety Steering Group upon its formation in August 2010. He holds a B.Eng in chemical engineering, is a member of the Institute of Chemical Engineers and holds a European Engineer (Eur Ing) title.
Mr Robertson said: “Step Change in Safety is seeing a real effort by member companies to commit to the agreed 50 per cent reduction in hydrocarbon releases. Some have built this target into their business plans and some of the top performing companies have agreed to share their successful methods with the wider group. The role of Step Change is now to support these efforts, facilitate the sharing of analyses of the root causes of incidents and develop ways to collectively move forward.”
Dave steps up
Elsewhere, Step Change in Safety has appointed Dave Nicholls as the Support Team’s safety manager to replace Ian Crossan, who has returned to PSN after a period of secondment. Dave stepped up to the new permanent role after two and a half years as a member of the support team. Dave has worked in safety for nearly 20 years, beginning his career as an inspector with the Health and Safety Executive before moving into the private sector as a safety adviser, HSE manager and more recently as an independent safety consultant and trainer. He has worked for global pharmaceutical and brewing firms and has direct experience of preparing safety cases in a major hazards environment.
Mr Nicholls said: “I believe that the meaningful participation of our member organisations is the key to Step Change in Safety’s success. From participation comes sharing, learning and common understanding and from these are sown the seeds of change.
“Our member companies should not underestimate the contribution they can make towards the common vision of making the UK the world’s safest place to work in the worldwide oil and gas industry.”
Dave Nicholls can be contacted here.
Launch of new website
On 1 June, Step Change launched its new website. The website has been completely redesigned to be more user-friendly, making it easier to navigate, register for events, access publications and research examples of good practice.
