Top Safety Leaders Under 35: Young Achievers

Young workers remain disproportionately vulnerable to workplace injury, and the data from 2025 reinforces the urgency of the safety profession’s investment in this demographic. In British Columbia alone, nearly 7,000 young workers are injured on the job every year, with serious injuries holding steady at approximately 800 annually. Over the past five years, 34 young workers in BC lost their lives due to workplace incidents, according to WorkSafeBC data reported in May 2025. The sectors with the highest concentration of young worker injuries in BC in 2024 were service-sector jobs (1,282 claims), construction (1,063 claims), and retail (492 claims).

Angelique Prince, director of prevention programs and services at WorkSafeBC, noted in May 2025 that inexperience, inadequate training and supervision, and unfamiliarity with workplace hazards all increase the risk for young workers – particularly when those workers do not feel empowered to ask questions or raise concerns. It is precisely this dynamic that makes the work of professionals like this year’s Young Achievers so consequential: building a safety culture in which young workers feel seen, supported, and safe enough to speak up is not a soft goal. It is a measurable outcome.

The occupational health and safety profession in Canada is at an inflection point – and the pipeline of top safety leaders under 35 has never mattered more. The Board of Canadian Registered Safety Professionals (BCRSP) has flagged that a significant cohort of experienced OHS practitioners is approaching retirement within the next several years, with the potential to leave a material shortage of qualified, experienced safety professionals across the country. The Government of Canada’s Job Bank, updated in December 2025, rates the employment outlook for OHS specialists in Ontario as “good” for the 2024–26 period, with several new positions expected from employment growth and further openings driven by retirements.

For those entering the profession today, a typical career trajectory moves from coordinator or advisor roles in the first three to five years through to senior advisor or officer positions and into management within a decade – accelerated significantly by achieving the CRSP designation and building a track record across multiple industries or project types. The Young Achievers profiled in this report – several of whom hold senior titles before the age of 35 – represent the upper end of that acceleration curve.

This generational transition creates both pressure and opportunity. The organizations that invest now in identifying, developing, and retaining young safety talent will be best positioned to navigate what the Institute for Work and Health – in a strategic foresight report published by the AWCBC in March 2026 – describes as the defining challenges of workplace safety by 2040: multigenerational workforces, accelerating technology adoption, and the growing impact of climate change on worker health. The report, which gathered insights from OHS experts across Canada and Europe, found that younger generations entering the workforce bring different expectations around technology, flexibility, and work-life balance – and that OHS professionals will play a central role in helping organizations adapt to those expectations safely and equitably.

The 2026 Young Achievers cohort reflects a broader shift in the demographic profile of Canadian safety professionals. Women, internationally trained professionals, and newcomers to Canada are entering the field in growing numbers – a trend that both experts and industry bodies regard as essential to the profession’s long-term health. Research from the Institute for Work and Health has consistently found that recent immigrants to Canada are more likely to be in physically demanding, higher-risk occupations, making culturally competent safety leadership a practical necessity rather than an aspirational goal. The Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety has identified inclusive PPE design, multilingual communication, and culturally competent safety education as priority areas for 2025, responding directly to a workforce that is more diverse than at any point in the profession’s history. Several of this year’s Young Achievers work daily across language barriers and multicultural teams, and their ability to reach workers who might otherwise be unreached is one of the clearest markers of their impact.

By any measure, 2025 was one of the most consequential years for occupational health and safety law in Canada in more than a decade. While no single piece of legislation grabbed national headlines, the cumulative effect of dozens of regulatory amendments, enforcement changes, and modernization initiatives across the country fundamentally altered what compliance now looks like for Canadian employers, according to OHS Insider’s year-end review published in December 2025. Governments across Canada moved toward a more active, prevention-focused, and enforcement-driven safety regime – one that places real accountability on employers, supervisors, and senior leaders, and in which passive compliance is no longer accepted as sufficient.

Among the most significant developments: in 2025, Nova Scotia became the final province to impose a statutory requirement for employers to implement an anti-harassment policy under OHS legislation, completing a national alignment on this issue for the first time across all provincially regulated workplaces. In Ontario, the Working for Workers Seven Act (Bill 30) received Royal Assent on November 27, 2025, introducing new provisions covering health and safety management systems, defibrillator reimbursement, and explicit prohibitions on employers making false statements about benefit claims to the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board. In Alberta, updates to the OHS Code took full effect on March 31, 2025, modernizing standards in areas including harassment and violence, explosives, and oil and gas. The message from regulators is clear: the bar is rising, and the professionals best equipped to help organizations clear it are those with both technical depth and the communication skills to drive genuine cultural change.

Mental health has become one of the most pressing concerns in Canadian workplaces – and one of the most urgent challenges for the safety professionals who serve them. A national survey of 5,008 employed Canadians conducted in June 2025 by Mental Health Research Canada and Canada Life found that 40 percent of workers have been diagnosed with a mental illness or neurodevelopmental condition at some point in their lives. Among workers aged 18-34 – the Young Achievers demographic – that figure rises to 45 percent. Despite this prevalence, only 42 percent of those diagnosed have disclosed it at work, with fear of career consequences cited as the primary reason.

The business case for investing in safety – and particularly in mental health – is now well established. Every dollar invested in workplace mental health programs generates an estimated return of $1.62 over three years, rising to $2.18 for programs running longer than three years, according to a Deloitte Insights analysis cited by Workplace Strategies for Mental Health. For organizations still treating safety as a compliance cost rather than a strategic investment, the financial case for change is as strong as the moral one.

Burnout has intensified sharply. A national survey by Mental Health Research Canada and Canada Life, released in October 2025, found that 39 percent of Canadian employees report feeling burnt out – a significant increase from the prior year – with the productivity cost estimated at more than $3.4 million annually for a company of 500 employees. According to the same report, only 67 percent of managers feel equipped to support employees with mental health challenges, despite co-worker and manager support being identified as the most effective available interventions.

The integration of artificial intelligence into occupational health and safety practice is accelerating – but adoption remains uneven. A landmark 2025 study published in the American Journal of Industrial Medicine by researchers at the Institute for Work and Health surveyed 810 OHS professionals across Ontario and British Columbia and found that just 26 percent of organizations currently use AI for OHS purposes, with over half reporting no usage at all. Firms classified as highly hazardous were more than three times as likely to have adopted AI for safety purposes as low-hazard organizations.

The broader picture shows growing momentum: Statistics Canada data, reported by OHS Canada in March 2026, shows that 12.2 percent of Canadian businesses used AI to produce goods or deliver services in 2025 – double the prior year rate. Adoption is strongest in information, cultural, and professional services and remains heavily skewed toward larger organizations, leaving a significant gap in the small and medium-sized enterprises where many OHS professionals operate. For young safety professionals who have grown up with technology, this gap represents one of the clearest opportunities to add value from the outset of their careers.

“A top-performing young OHS professional in 2026 represents a new generation of integrators and influencers – people who can translate risk, data, and human behaviour into practical action”
Eldeen PozniakPozniak Safety Associates

Eldeen Pozniak, director of Pozniak Safety Associates – whose credentials span an MBA, BSc, CEES, CHSC, CHSMSA, CRSP, FIIRSM, and CMIOSH – brings decades of national and international perspective to the question of what makes a young safety professional stand out. For her, this generation’s defining quality is adaptability. Those under 35 have grown up navigating constant change, and that agility translates directly into the modern safety environment, where new technologies, shifting regulatory frameworks, and evolving workforce demographics demand professionals who can absorb and act on information without friction.

Yet Pozniak is clear that adaptability alone is not enough. The foundation of the profession remains technical intelligence – a deep understanding of hazards, risk, controls, and regulatory context. What elevates the best young professionals is the ability to pair that technical grounding with what she calls operational intelligence: a genuine understanding of how work is performed and decisions are made in real time. That means getting out of the office, spending time with trades, operators, and maintenance teams, and building the credibility that comes only from being present on the floor.

Shannon Bolger, BSc, CRSP, president of Benchmark Safety, shares that perspective – and adds a dimension that has grown dramatically in importance since the pandemic. In Bolger’s experience, the best young safety professionals today are not just technically proficient; they are emotionally attuned. They are more willing than previous generations to engage with psychological safety, mental health, and burnout as legitimate workplace concerns, and organizations are increasingly leaning on them to lead that conversation.

 

“We need to remember that a lot of changes happened within the safety world during COVID-19, and I see companies leaning more heavily on their safety professionals to address mental health, diversity, and communication in a way that we didn’t see everywhere before”
Shannon BolgerBenchmark Safety

 

Both experts agree that the expectations on young safety professionals have expanded significantly compared with five or 10 years ago. Early-career professionals are no longer simply expected to support inspections and documentation. They are expected to be analysts, communicators, facilitators, and change agents – often simultaneously and frequently without the formal authority that traditionally accompanied such influence. As Bolger notes, this creates real pressure: young professionals must build trust and relationships to achieve impact, even as they are still developing their own expertise.

The message is one of both opportunity and responsibility. Canada’s occupational health and safety landscape is evolving rapidly, and the professionals who will shape it are, in many cases, already in the field. The 2026 Young Achievers represent exactly that next generation – and the data and profiles in this report bear that out. In every case, the professionals who stand out are those who have learned to build genuine trust with the people they protect. The four profiled in the Young Achievers in Focus section demonstrate, in vivid terms, what that looks like when it is lived every day.

Expert perspectives: defining the top safety leaders under 35

 

Eldeen Poziak

 

“The young professionals who rise fastest are the ones who combine technical understanding with strong communication, humility, curiosity, and the ability to build relationships. Safety is a leadership profession – and leadership starts long before you have a title.”
Eldeen PozniakPozniak Safety Associates

His ambitions reflect the breadth of his thinking. Vair wants, in time, to move into a senior global leadership role within Metso – following in the footsteps of his director and helping to push safety initiatives across an international organization. In the meantime, he continues to show up on the floor, learn from every site he encounters, and remind himself that in a workplace full of heavy machinery, there is no such thing as a day when vigilance can be set aside.
 

IN HIS OWN WORDS
 

What do you think has made you stand out as a safety professional?

I think it comes down to dedication and putting in the time – not watching the clock, but seizing the opportunities that come your way. The other thing is the hands-on approach. I’ve spent 10 years at McCloskey’s working directly on the assembly line, understanding the processes, understanding the machines. I’m not just sitting in an office reading reports. Reports and numbers don’t solve problems – being on the floor does.
 

How do you get workers to genuinely engage with safety rather than just going through the motions?

It’s one of the hardest parts of the job. You can give a safety briefing, and people will look at you the same way passengers look at the flight attendant – not really listening because they don’t think it applies to them. What I’ve found works is bringing in real-world consequences. I’ll pull up ministry court documents about fatalities at other organizations doing the same kinds of tasks we do. Once people see that, it becomes real. Our workplace isn’t a pillow factory – we deal with heavy machinery and significant weight. Everyone needs to go home at the end of the day, and that has to feel personal.
 

What are you most proud of from the past year?

The forklift fleet upgrade was a big one – eight to 10 months of planning, and it finally came together. Moving to fully digital trucks with controlled logbooks means you can’t start the vehicle until the pre-check is complete. It eliminates the pencil whipping, it adds speed controls, and switching from propane to lithium-ion is a genuine environmental win. But I’m also proud of the digital evacuation system. Building that with free Microsoft tools and then watching it get rolled out to a 1,500-person site in Brazil – that was something.

How do you manage the mental load of being responsible for people’s safety?

I’ll be honest – I get over-involved. I’m always on the clock in my head. But I’ve learned that safety isn’t just my responsibility. I work with a coordinator, and I rely on the whole management team, from the plant manager down to the shop floor. Safety is a shared responsibility. What I try to do is learn constantly – from other sites, from companies that are doing things better than us – and make sure that learning gets applied. We run a horizontal deployment program – essentially a structured process where all Metso sites share their safety improvements each month so every facility benefits from every other facility’s learnings. That helps spread good practice and takes some of the weight off any one person.

Ryan Mani
Health and Safety Manager | Concord Adex

PROFILE

Ryan Mani operates at one of the most demanding frontlines in occupational safety: the active construction site, where hazards shift daily, the workforce is diverse and constantly rotating, and the stakes of a missed conversation can be catastrophic. With 12 years of experience behind him, he has developed a practice defined by patience, cultural sensitivity, and an unwavering focus on changing behaviour rather than simply enforcing compliance.

Mani works as a safety representative on behalf of a developer, giving him oversight of multiple trades across complex, multi-story projects. What sets him apart, by his own account, is an ability to adapt – to read a situation, identify what kind of conversation is needed, and adjust accordingly. Canada’s construction workforce is extraordinarily diverse, and Mani draws a parallel to London’s multicultural environment in describing the range of communication challenges he navigates every day. Workers fall, broadly, into three categories: those cutting corners deliberately in the name of speed; older workers who push back on the basis of experience; and those who genuinely do not understand the instruction because of a language barrier. Each requires a different response.

His method is disarming in its simplicity. Before addressing a safety violation, Mani makes conversation. A question about the weekend. A comment about last night’s game. The goal is to lower defences and establish a moment of human connection before the safety message is delivered – because a worker who feels confronted is a worker who may react abruptly, potentially creating a greater immediate hazard than the one being addressed. It is a technique born of experience, and it reflects a sophisticated understanding of how people actually behave under pressure.

Mani’s enforcement framework is structured but proportionate. For life-threatening violations – working at height without being tied off – there is zero tolerance: an immediate written ticket, supervisor notification, and removal from site on a second offence. For lesser violations, he begins with a verbal conversation, escalates to a written warning only on repetition, and moves to a three-strike system that ultimately results in removal. Everything is documented – dates, photographs, detailed notes – because Mani understands that disputes arise and that the protection of workers and employers alike depends on a clear record.

“There’s an expectation that young safety professionals be more involved in overall wellness programs. They need to build trust and create relationships and focus on coaching and engaging workers”
Shannon BolgerBenchmark Safety

What motivates Mani is straightforward and personal. He returned to construction after a period working in manufacturing and property management because he found he could not make a meaningful difference from an office. The work requires physical presence. It requires being there when the risks are real and the conversations are difficult. He describes himself as the bridge between workers and upper management – carrying concerns upward and instructions downward and ensuring that both sides are heard. That role, unglamorous as it can be, is where he believes the most important safety work happens.

Looking ahead, Mani is considering launching his own safety consulting practice – an ambition rooted not in personal advancement but in the desire to pass on what he has learned. He was mentored when he entered the field, and he wants to extend that same investment to the next generation of safety professionals. At 35, he just made the age cutoff for this year’s Young Achievers. He plans to be doing this work for another 25 years.

IN HIS OWN WORDS

What do you think is your greatest strength as a safety professional?

Adaptability. Canada’s workforce is incredibly diverse – different ages, different ethnicities, different languages. The way you talk to a 22-year-old who’s new to construction is completely different from the way you talk to a 50-year-old who’s been doing the job longer than you’ve been alive. And then there are workers who genuinely don’t understand the instruction because of a language barrier. You have to figure out which situation you’re in quickly and adjust. That’s where patience comes in. De-escalation. Understanding that someone might just be having a bad day before you assume they’re being deliberately difficult.
 

How do you actually change behaviour rather than just compliance?

That’s the goal – I want people to work safely because they understand why it matters, not just because I’m watching. I tell workers directly: “I’m proof that things happen, because it’s what I have a job.” I try to make the risk personal. If you get hurt, your life changes. I’ll still file my paperwork, but I’ll go home that evening. You might not be able to provide for your family for the next six months. That’s a different conversation from quoting a regulation at someone.
 

How do you handle the relationship between workers and management?

I see myself as the bridge. If management has a concern about a particular worker or a particular practice, I’m the one who communicates that downward in a way that doesn’t create conflict. And if workers need something – better access to amenities, a heating issue, a washroom problem – I take that upward. My job is to keep everyone on the same page through constant listening and communication. When that works, the site runs better. When it breaks down, everything becomes harder.
 

What does your daily routine look like?

Every morning I review headcount spreadsheets and daily risk assessments from all the trades. Then I prioritize – what’s high-risk today, and where is work happening that I need to be present for? I can’t be everywhere at once, so I have to make strategic decisions about where my time goes. Some inspections are formal, with photos and a written report. Others are conversations. And then there are the days when something goes wrong – first aid, Ministry of Labour, EMS, hospital. Those days are different entirely. You have to be ready for all of it.

Adam Sweetman
Health, Safety, and Environment Coordinator | Envent

 

PROFILE

Adam Sweetman does not approach safety as a professional obligation. He approaches it as a way of life. The distinction matters – and it is one that comes through immediately in everything he describes about his work. Sweetman runs safety drills at home with his family. He treats a missed learning opportunity with the same seriousness as a near miss on site. And he has committed to 200 hours of professional development every year, not because it is required but because he believes that you cannot teach what you do not know.

That commitment to continuous learning is matched by a breadth of responsibility that would challenge a professional with twice his experience. Sweetman oversees health and safety for global operations spanning Canada, the US, China, Mexico, and Africa, conducting compliance audits at each international location at least once annually and maintaining constant communication with on-site representatives who serve as his eyes and ears in the field. It is a role that demands not just technical competence but cultural fluency – an ability to understand how safety regulations and workplace norms differ across jurisdictions and to build systems that function effectively within each context.

At the heart of Sweetman’s practice is empathy. He is direct about naming it as his core strength: a genuine care for workers that goes beyond the procedural. Having been on site for both fatalities and near misses, he brings a realistic, lived understanding of what can go wrong – and that experience shapes the way he talks about hazards. He does not describe risks in abstract terms. He describes them in the specific, consequential language of real events because he knows that abstraction does not change behaviour. Proximity to consequence does.

His current flagship initiative is a 50-hour training program delivered over five weeks, built entirely around the specific hazards of the worksite rather than generic safety content. The program is hands-on by design: participants learn by doing, working through practical drills and realistic scenarios rather than reading policy documents. Sweetman is deliberate about avoiding technology dependence in his training – workers, he argues, need to know their rights and procedures in the moment, not look them up on a phone that may not be available when it matters.

“The young professionals who rise fastest are the ones who can bridge the gap between technical knowledge and operational reality. They understand legislation and standards, but they also understand people, culture, and the dynamics of work”
Eldeen PozniakPozniak Safety Associates

Mental health has become a significant and growing focus for Sweetman, informed in part by his academic background in psychology at the University of Calgary. He runs a buddy system on site, pairing workers with trusted colleagues as a first line of support, and makes himself personally available to workers who need to talk. Managing others’ emotional well-being carries its own weight, and Sweetman is candid about how he handles it: by debriefing daily with his wife, creating a mutual support structure that allows him to process what he carries from the workplace without letting it accumulate.

He is currently pursuing a PhD in psychosocial workplace well-being – a research commitment that underscores just how seriously he takes the intersection of mental health and occupational safety. His definition of success is precise and non-negotiable: everyone goes home at the end of the day having learned something. A score of 100 percent on a compliance audit, he will tell any organization he works with, is not something he will ever award – because perfect scores breed complacency, and complacency is how people get hurt.

IN HIS OWN WORDS

What do you think sets you apart in this profession?

Empathy, genuinely. This isn’t just a job to me – it’s a lifestyle. I run safety drills at home with my family. I’ve been on site for fatalities and for near misses, and those experiences have stayed with me. They’ve given me a realistic understanding of what can go wrong, and they mean that when I explain a hazard, I can explain it in real terms, not hypothetical ones. Workers respond to that differently. It lands differently when you can say, I’ve seen what happens when this goes wrong.
 

What is the biggest challenge you face in your work today?

Technology dependence. Workers are reaching for their phones to look up safety procedures instead of knowing them. And the problem is that the phone isn’t always there when you need it. I push back against that in my training – I want people to own their knowledge, to carry it with them. You need to know your rights and your responsibilities in the moment, not five minutes later when you’ve found the right webpage.
 

How do you approach training, and what makes it effective?

I build the training at the location. Right now I’m running a 50-hour program over five weeks that covers every relevant safety topic with practical drills and scenarios specific to that worksite. Learning by doing – not reading policies. And I make it mandatory, so there are no gaps. The goal is that by the time someone finishes the program, they know what a hazard looks like on their floor, not just in a textbook.
 

Mental health is increasingly part of the safety conversation. How do you approach it?

It’s a workplace hazard, and I treat it as one. COVID-19 made people more aware of their mental state but didn’t necessarily give them the tools to manage it. I run a buddy system – workers paired with someone they trust – and I make myself available. I’ve done psychology coursework, and that informs how I have those conversations. The hard part is that carrying other people’s well-being is its own kind of weight. I decompress with my wife every evening. We support each other. That’s how I stay capable of doing it the next day.

What does success look like to you?

Everyone goes home at the end of the day having learned something. That’s it. Safety is a moving target that never reaches 100 percent – and I deliberately raise my standards as I get closer, because complacency is the enemy. As a Certificate of Recognition (COR) auditor – a designation that certifies organizations have a functioning safety management system – I tell organizations they will never get a perfect score from me. There is always room for improvement. The moment you think you’ve got it covered is the moment you stop seeing the risks.

Harry Le
Health and Safety Advisor | Worksite Safety

 

PROFILE

Harry Le has identified something that separates good safety professionals from genuinely exceptional ones: the willingness to own the problem. In his role as a third-party safety advisor, Le does not simply identify hazards and document them for someone else to address. He arrives with solutions – practical, workable answers that function within the existing constraints of a site, a team, and a budget. It is a distinction that sounds straightforward but requires a particular combination of technical knowledge, operational awareness, and professional courage.

Le operates across construction and infrastructure environments, working as an embedded advisor rather than a periodic inspector. One of the central challenges he has identified in this model is the risk of marginalization – of being brought in for meetings and excluded from the day-to-day operational rhythm that would allow genuinely proactive safety management. His response is to fight that marginalization actively: to stay informed about deliveries, upcoming scopes, and scheduling changes so that hazard assessments and equipment planning can happen before the work begins rather than after a problem has already emerged.

A recent achievement illustrates this approach clearly. Following a high-profile Ontario liability case involving the City of Greater Sudbury – in which the municipality was found to be a constructor under the Occupational Health and Safety Act and held responsible for a serious accident on a road adjacent to a work site – many project owners across the province became acutely aware of their exposure to traffic-related liability. Le seized on this moment not simply to comply with the minimum requirements set out in Ontario’s Temporary Conditions and Traffic Manual but to push beyond them. He worked with the contractor to evaluate the actual conditions at the site entrance: traffic arriving from a 70 km/h zone, descending a hill, with limited sight lines, entering a posted 50 km/h zone. The minimum standard did not account for those realities. Le’s solution – additional signage, no-passing zones, extended buffer zones, and higher-standard layouts across all four site gates – did.

Le is also notably thoughtful about how safety performance is measured. He is skeptical of Total Recordable Incident Rate as a primary indicator, arguing that it creates perverse incentives – pressure to minimize or not report incidents in order to maintain a low score. His preferred measure is leading indicators: the number of observations per day, the degree to which workers at different levels have developed genuine ownership of safety, and the degree to which risks have been actively mitigated rather than merely documented. On one previous project, Le’s team averaged 60 observations per day – approximately two per person – a figure he considers a far more honest reflection of safety culture than any incident rate.

“Top-performing young OHS professionals bring curiosity, adaptability, and the ability to work across functions rather than inside a compliance silo”
Eldeen PozniakPozniak Safety Associates

Building relationships is, for Le, as important as any technical skill. He talks about starting field conversations with casual questions – about the weekend, about personal news – before transitioning to safety topics, and he is explicit about why: a worker who trusts you will listen to what you have to say. A worker who regards you as a compliance officer will not. That trust, built over time and through hundreds of small interactions, is what allows safety messages to land in a way that changes behaviour rather than simply generating documentation.

Looking ahead, Le wants to scale his impact. His ambition is to move progressively toward health and safety management systems work – helping organizations develop programs that go beyond what legislation requires and reach for what genuine worker protection demands. The law, as he notes, moves slowly. Best practice does not have to.

IN HIS OWN WORDS

What do you think makes you stand out as a safety professional?

Ownership. I’m a third-party advisor, which means the ultimate responsibility sits with the site management team – but that doesn’t mean I just identify problems and hand them over. I come with solutions. Practical solutions that work with the resources and frameworks that are already there. I describe myself as a very persistent dog when it comes to chasing down answers that work for everyone, from apprentices to senior management. That persistence, and the willingness to own the outcome, is what I think makes the difference.
 

What is the biggest day-to-day challenge you face?

Staying embedded. On a new project, there’s always a risk that safety gets siloed – brought in for meetings but not included in the operational planning. I push back against that constantly. I need to know what deliveries are coming in, what the next work scope is, and where the schedule is heading. If I don’t have that information, I can’t do proactive hazard assessments. I can’t make sure the right equipment and materials are in place. I end up reacting instead of preventing, and that’s not where I add value.
 

Can you walk us through a recent achievement you’re proud of?

The traffic control work followed the Greater Sudbury liability case – where the City was found liable as a constructor under the OHSA for an incident on an adjacent road. A lot of owners became nervous about their own liability exposure, and I used that moment to push the contractor to go beyond the minimum standard. The site entrance was at the bottom of a hill in a 50 km/h zone, but traffic was arriving from a 70 km/h zone 200 metres away, coming downhill with limited vision. The standard layout didn’t account for that. We moved to higher-standard layouts across all four gates – more signage, no-passing zones, and extended buffer zones. The contractor now evaluates actual site conditions before deploying traffic control on every project. That’s the kind of change I want to see.
 

How do you think about measuring success in safety?

Not through TRIR. I’ve worked on a project with a TRIR of around six that had one of the strongest safety cultures I’ve seen – 60 observations per day across the team, genuine ownership at every level. Incident rates can be gamed. They can push people to not report. Leading indicators are what matter: how many proactive observations are we making, how many risks have we actually mitigated, and has the team genuinely evolved in how they think about safety? That last one is the hardest to measure and the most important.
 

Where do you see your career heading?

I want to create impact at a larger scale. Right now I’m embedded in field work, and I think that’s where I need to be to build credibility. But eventually I want to step back and focus on health and safety management systems – helping organizations develop programs that reach beyond what the legislation requires. The law moves slowly. Best practice doesn’t have to. I want to be the person helping organizations close that gap.
 

Stephen Jessup
HSE Business Partner | GreenMantra Technologies

 

PROFILE

Stephen Jessup has built his career on a principle that sounds simple but is harder to execute than almost anything else in occupational health and safety: make safety feel like part of the job, not an obstacle to it. Working across manufacturing and industrial environments, he has spent years earning the trust of workers, supervisors, and senior leadership alike – and doing so through a combination of technical depth, genuine approachability, and an instinctive focus on solutions rather than sanctions.

What distinguishes Jessup is the breadth of his operational experience. His career has taken him across manufacturing, financial services, public transit, and construction-related operations – an unusually diverse background that has exposed him to a wide range of hazards, regulatory frameworks, and workplace cultures. That diversity is not merely a biographical detail. It is the foundation of his credibility. When he walks onto a manufacturing floor or into a logistics facility, he brings with him an understanding of how different operational environments create different risks – and how the approach that works in one setting may be entirely wrong for another.

The past 12 months have been among the most professionally significant of Jessup's career. Working within fast-paced industrial environments, he has led investigations, supported ISO 45001 and ISO 14001 management systems, conducted compliance audits, and worked closely with operations teams to drive continuous improvement. ISO 45001 is the international standard for occupational health and safety management systems, and its implementation requires a safety professional who can operate fluently across technical, operational, and people-management dimensions simultaneously.

Jessup’s greatest professional growth over the past year has come in an area that does not appear on any audit checklist: the art of relationship-building. He is emphatic that the biggest successes of the past 12 months came not from systems or procedures, but from collaboration – with maintenance teams, production staff, engineers, and front-line workers. That insight shapes the way he approaches every aspect of his role. He does not arrive at a site with pre-formed answers. He arrives with questions and listens carefully to the answers he receives.

Machine safety and ergonomics have been a particular focus. In manufacturing environments, even routine tasks can create significant exposure if equipment design, maintenance practices, or operational pressures are not properly managed. Jessup’s response has been methodical: risk assessments, incident trend reviews, corrective actions developed in partnership with operations teams, and training programmes designed to build awareness rather than simply transmit information. His emphasis throughout has been on identifying root causes rather than addressing surface-level symptoms.

Technology and AI have become meaningful parts of Jessup's daily practice – used for trend analysis, audit support, procedure development, and legislative research. But his relationship with these tools is defined by a clear-eyed perspective on their limits. Communication, leadership, trust, and physical presence in the workplace are things no algorithm can replicate. The value of AI, as he sees it, is precisely that it frees safety professionals to spend more time doing the things only humans can do.

IN HIS OWN WORDS

What quality do you feel is your main attribute as a safety professional?

My strongest attribute is my ability to connect operational realities with practical safety solutions. I've always focused on building credibility with workers, supervisors, and leadership by being approachable, technically knowledgeable, and solutions-oriented. Whether I'm conducting investigations, leading training, or implementing management systems, I try to create a culture where safety is viewed as part of operational excellence rather than just compliance.
 

What has been the biggest challenge over the past year, and how did you overcome it?

One of the biggest challenges has been balancing operational demands with maintaining high safety standards in fast-paced industrial environments. Manufacturing facilities are constantly evolving, and safety professionals need to adapt quickly while still ensuring risks are properly managed. I've overcome that by focusing heavily on proactive risk assessment, communication, and engagement with employees. I've learned that the best outcomes happen when workers feel involved in the process rather than having safety simply imposed on them.
 

What role does technology and AI play in your day to day?

Technology and AI are becoming increasingly valuable tools in health and safety. I use technology daily for trend analysis, auditing, procedure and policy creation, and training development. AI in particular has been very useful for improving efficiency – whether it's helping analyse data trends, drafting procedures, organising information, or supporting research into legislation and best practices. I see AI as a support tool that helps safety professionals spend more time on meaningful engagement with workers and risk reduction activities. That said, I still strongly believe the human side of safety – communication, leadership, trust, and presence in the workplace – is something technology can never replace.
 

What specific safety issue have you focused on most over the past year?

A major area of focus has been machine safety and ergonomics within industrial operations. In manufacturing environments, even routine tasks can create significant exposure if equipment design, maintenance practices, or operational pressures aren't properly managed. I've spent considerable time conducting risk assessments, reviewing incident trends, working with operations teams on corrective actions, and improving worker awareness through training and engagement. I've focused heavily on identifying root causes rather than just addressing surface-level symptoms – that approach has helped drive more sustainable improvements and stronger preventative measures.
 

How do you tailor your safety communication to different workers?

I absolutely believe safety communication needs to be tailored to the audience and situation. Every worker learns differently, and the most effective safety programmes use multiple methods of communication. For some people, hands-on demonstrations and conversations on the floor are most effective. Others respond better to visuals, data, formal training sessions, or digital communication tools. I've found that consistent engagement – especially face-to-face interaction and involving workers in problem-solving – is one of the best ways to build a strong safety culture. The key is making safety practical, relatable, and relevant to the work people are actually doing every day.
 

Where do you see your career heading?

I see myself continuing to grow into a leadership role within the health and safety profession while continuing to learn and evolve technically. I’m passionate about building strong safety cultures, mentoring others, and helping organisations integrate safety into operational decision-making. Long-term, I’d like to continue advancing in areas such as safety leadership, management systems, risk management, and organisational strategy. Most importantly, I want to continue making a positive impact on people. At the end of the day, health and safety is about ensuring workers go home safe, healthy, and supported.
 

In short, the five top safety leaders under 35 profiled in these pages are a distillation of what this year’s Young Achievers represents as a cohort. They come from different industries, different regions, and different professional backgrounds. They face different hazards, manage different workforces, and deploy different methodologies. But they share a common orientation: safety is not a function they perform. It is something they live.

Drawing on the expert perspectives presented in full earlier in this report, what Eldeen Pozniak and Shannon Bolger describe as the ideal for a top safety leader under 35 – the integration of technical excellence with emotional intelligence, operational presence with strategic thinking, and individual skill with the humility to collaborate – is precisely what 2026’s winners demonstrate in practice. They are building the kind of safety culture that the experts say Canada’s organizations need: not a culture of compliance, but a culture of genuine shared ownership.

The profession is in good hands. And the 40 Young Achievers recognized in this year’s report are proof that the next generation of safety leadership is already here, already working, and already making a difference – one site, one worker, one conversation at a time.