My name is Ron Rhodes. I am a safety professional with over 42 years of experience in health and safety. I was the global Health and Safety Manager for TOTAL Energies, the largest energy company in Europe before my retirement.

For the first 20 years of my career, I served in various roles at a large chemical complex in La Porte, Texas. From working in the warehouse area as a forklift driver, to eventually becoming a first line supervisor in the operations area.

I was working at the La Porte plant on October 23, 1989, when the Phillips Petroleum complex suffered one of the worst explosions in the industry’s history. Twenty-three people were killed, and over 300 people were severely injured. The La Porte plant where I was working was only 2 miles away from that disaster, and I saw first-hand how important safety is, and how devastating unmanaged risks can be.

Largely because of the Phillips Petroleum complex disaster, I changed my career path to work on improving process and personal safety. I served as the Process Safety Coordinator at the La Porte plant from 1992 until 1996. In 1996, I moved to the corporate level and was responsible for process safety across four chemical plants and a large refinery in Port Arthur, Texas. I led a team in the development of safety management system (AIMS: Advanced Integrated Management System) for all the US operations. In 2013, I took an assignment in Paris, France as the Global Management Systems Manager to develop a management system for all of TOTAL’s global operations. I retired from TOTAL Energies in 2017.

During my career, I conduced more that 1,600 audits of facilities around the world. I’ve trained more than 2,900 people in many aspects of safety and safety management. From behavioral safety factors, to training those responsible for conducting accident incident investigations.

Process safety begins with properly designed equipment and maintaining that equipment. But personal safety begins with everyone taking responsibly for their safety, and the safety of those around them.

It is my passion to partner with companies to improve the safety of their workplaces. This requires a clean working environment, where the risks are both identified and controlled.