Finalists announced for 2017’s rising stars in health and safety

SHP is very pleased to announce the finalists for 2017’s Rising Star Awards (both UK and international) and the Biggest Impact Award.

SHP’s Rising Stars Awards have become an annual event to celebrate young people and those new to the profession who have demonstrated excellence in their roles.

After candidates were submitted by members of the public, a panel of judges including experts from RoSPA, NEBOSH, Thames Water and Acre reviewed the submissions and picked out the most outstanding entries.

Below are the finalists for the Rising Star Award, Rising Star International Award and the Biggest Impact Award, presented in no particular order.

Rising Star UK – award finalists

• Jamie Sutherland-Pownall, Sellafield Ltd. – Jamie is the Senior Safety Specialist at Sellafield Ltd, a nuclear decommissioning site licence company. Nominated by his colleagues, Jamie has risen rapidly in the profession. A colleague said of him: “Jamie always takes the time to support and assist those interested in health and safety. This includes advice, guidance and mentorship from his most recent roadshow endeavours about safety careers, IOSH committee membership and the IOSH Chartered Steering Group.”
• Steve Woodcock, Colorminium London Limited – Steve is a project manager at Colorminium London Limited, a façade company. Nominated by his management, Steve is said to go above and beyond for his work. His management says: “Steve takes safety to the next level by providing direct support and getting involvement from quantity surveyors and designers and enforcing that it is embraced by all. He goes over and above to personally reward safety and get it recognised where people are displaying good practice.”
• Paul Young, Shell UK Limited – Paul is a HSE technical support for Shell UK Limited, an oil and gas company. Nominated by a previous line manager, Paul had no previous experience in the oil and gas industry but has quickly proven himself as a great worker. His nominator says: “The commitment shown by Paul is evident through his active involvement in any internal or external activities whereby he can represent the company and/or develop his health and safety knowledge.”
• Luke Callinan, TClarke – Luke is a health and safety advisor for TClarke, a civil engineering company. Nominated by his technical director, Luke has been with TClarke with 3 years. Hi nominator said: “Luke works within a seven-person Head Office team and as part of it, a key example of his ability is that he is not only competent with his own undertakings, he is also able absorb and manage timely and effectively any task/job that he has to ‘pick-up’ to assist another team member who is either absent or under their own pressures.”
• Pardeep Sanghera, St. George developments Limited – Pardeep is a health and safety advisor at St. George Developments Limited, a property development company. He was nominated by a line manager that had this to say: “Pardeep has made a positive intent to rebuild a fractious relationship between the client and Principal Contractor and contractors. He has engaged in supervisor forums by himself and under his own initiative to slowly build a trust with supervisors struggling on the ground to communicate with his own team. Pardeep nurtured back a sense of trust between everyone, making the site a nice place to work where people enjoy coming to work and where communication has become the mainstay.”
• Gabby Bethan Fasey, EPC United Kingdom plc – Gabby is a rough close works safety adviser for EPC United Kingdom plc, a commercial explosives and blasting company. She was nominated by her line manager who said: “In the 3 year period that Gabby has been the Rough Close Works Safety Advisor for EPC United Kingdom plc, she has developed extremely well from being a business apprentice with no experience or exposure to health and safety to being knowledgable and highly respected for her young age within an environment dominated being older very long serving personnel.”

Rising Star International – award finalists

• Roque DCunha, Qatar Steel Co. – Roque is a safety supervisor at Qatar Steel Co., a steel company. Roque nominated himself and said: “I managed to establish a department’s committee to manage safety and environment. I also conduct monthly meeting with all the member,s that includes department Committee Members (Department level), Department Safety Inspectors (section levels) and Department Safety representatives (local level).”
• Emmanuel Uwalaka, OSHAssociation – Emmanuel is a health and safety administrator for OSHAssociation, a non-profit health and safety consultancy. Emmanuel was nominated by a colleague who said: “Emmanuel has done a lot in the field of safety, health and environment in Nigeria and other west African countries. He has consulted successfully for major companies and industries such as Nigerian Maritime and Administrative Safety Agency, Dangote, Nigerian Ports Authority, etc. He also helped in setting up Safety departments in major companies, and organised annual conferences for the company he works with in Nigeria, Benin Republic and Ghana.”
• Nana Agyemang, Community Water & Sanitation – Nana is responsible for his community’s water and sanitation services. Nana was nominated by his traditional ruler, who said this about him: “Nana has done great things for his community, Kokofu Adwumam. He has given portable water to the community, provide 14 seater toilet facilities to a community close to ours, supplied 200 dustbins to five communities in the Bosomtwe District and has made our sanitation workers work every day.”
• Hamdan Al Senaani, ENOC – Hamdan is a senior EHS engineer for ENOC, an oil company. Hamdan nominated himself for the prize and said this: “I am a person who believes in safety and its importance, I enjoy my career as a safety person committed to promoting safety to our employees. I began my career as an EHS inspector less than 5 year ago. I became the Senior EHS Engineer for ENOC Retail and am responsible for more than 3,000 employees.”

Biggest Impact – award finalists

• Neil Traynor, Melton Foods – Neil is a health and safety manager for Melton Foods, a food production company. Neil was nominated by his health and safety director, who had this to say: “Neil transitioned seamlessly from his operational role into the safety function in February 2016, bringing management skills and training to the safety role at Melton Foods. Neil has chosen perhaps one of the most challenging industries to learn his craft, but has approached it with enthusiasm and a positive open mind.”
• Dionne Crouch, London City Airport – Dionne is a health and safety advisor for London City Airport. Dionne was nominated by a colleague who said: “Dionne is an inspiration to everyone she meets and works with. Her enthusiasm towards health and safety is so strong even when not at work. She is a great teacher as well, she explains things to people in laymans’ terms so it’s easy for people to understand if they are unaware of the rules.”
• Shelia Grant, ContourMC – Shelia is a health and safety consultant for ContourMC, a health and safety consultant company. Shelia was nominated by a partner who said this about her: “Shelia has had a major impact on the health, safety and wellbeing of employees in several businesses and she works tirelessly to influence and advise and train others without any special industry recognition. She is working directly with small and medium sized companies who do not have any access to on site competent advice and her influence has been amazing.”
• Adam Gomes, Altius VA Ltd. – Adam is a senior Assurance specialist for Altius VA Ltd, a supply chain specialist. Adam was nominated by his wife, who had this to say: “Last October Adam had a serious car crash with an artic lorry on the motor way. He sustained some injuries but luckily no one was killed. Upon going back to work Adam decided to focus on driver safety awareness and with the support of his company researched in depth many different ‘Driving whilst on company business’ policies and procedures. With his new knowledge  he reviewed and revised the company policy, introducing an internal safe driver training course along with educating staff on the new policy along with tips on how to make your journey as safe as possible.”
• John Ducey, Dornan Engineering Services Ltd. – John is a QA and commissioning manager for Dornan Engineering Services Ltd, a mechanical, electrical and instrumentation company. John was nominated by a colleague, who said this: “He has, over the past 12 months, undertaken a full review of our existing company electrical safety rules. The existing rules needed refreshing and be brought up to date and incorporate not only UK legislation, but also European standards. As a result of John’s hard work the company now have a fully comprehensive set of rules that can be applied in all our workplaces across UK and Europe.”
• Matthew Hazelton, Motivational Speaker – Matthew became a motivational speaker after two of his colleagues and two of his brothers died in a workplace incident. He was nominated by Proud2bSafe who said this: “Matt has joined the Proud2bSafe team along side Jason Anker MBE and works very hard to improve ideas and his message that he delivers on site. He is a great team member, even though his story is so close to home and heartfelt Matt still strives to make sure the most effective message is delivered on site to the guys so this doesn’t happen to them.”

Congratulations to all the finalists.

Winners of each category will be announced at Safety & Health Expo 2017 at 15:20 in the Keynote Theatre. You can read more about SHP’s Rising Stars here and register for Safety & Health Expo here