Head of EHS Americas

Cushman & Wakefield•Chicago, NY

About The Position

The key objective of the role is to lead the Environment, Health and Safety (EHS) Strategy for the Americas region and act as a trusted business partner to the Americas Executive Leadership Team(s). In addition to traditional EHS responsibilities, the role will also support and collaborate on Crisis Management & Resiliency, Security and Quality matters across the region to support the work of the wider global EHS Team. The Head of Americas EHS will work in partnership with key operational stakeholders including service line and regional leadership in order to design the strategy, agree strategic objectives and implement relevant initiatives, goals and targets to continuously improve EHS Management across the region. The role will support the operational business to deliver measurable improvements in health, safety and environmental performance across our Americas operational business. This is a senior corporate role reporting directly to the Global Head of EHS, with indirect reporting lines into key senior stakeholders in the region including President, Americas Advisory and President, Asset Services, requiring a seasoned professional with the leadership skills necessary to work closely with and present material at a senior level.

Requirements

Degree in Occupational Health and Safety, Business Management or an equivalent discipline.
Minimum 12 years experience in senior EHS roles in a heavy matrix environment, preferably across multi-site and multi-sector organizations.
Detailed knowledge and practical application of EHS in construction, integrated facilities management and property management.
Well-versed in OSHA CFR 1910 & 1926 standards and knowledge of OSH Canadian Law across providences.
Relevant EHS certification of ASP/CSP through the Board of Certified Safety Professionals or equivalent qualifications/certifications.
Understand at a detailed level how to drive change across the business; experience with change management models such as PROSI, Kotter and/or Bridges.
Professional acumen to influence change, working in partnership and collaboration across the business.
Demonstrated ability to interact and provide senior-level presentations to executive stakeholders.
Developing and executing key EHS programs necessary to activate management system standards, targeted initiatives to manage risk and maintaining minimal compliance.
Possess a degree of emotional intelligence when interacting with leadership, clients, operational teams and line employees.
Foster relationships and stakeholder management, demonstrating strong influencing skills and pragmatic problem solving skills.
Ability to operate at a senior level with senior executive stakeholders.
Resilience and tenacity will be required in order to achieve the objectives and targets of the role.
Acting with authority in a crisis; this includes ability to deal with major incidents if they were to arise and provide expert counsel to members of the company executive on appropriate action to be taken in the event of any EHS related incident.
Ability to effectively respond to complex enquiries, solve complex problems and provide innovative solutions, whilst considering the bigger picture and commercial factors, anticipating potential issues and future needs of the business.
Exceptional time management skills; work as a self-start, self regulator and an ability to work and deliver under pressure.
Fluent in English; additional languages skills including Spanish / Portuguese are a plus.

Responsibilities

Lead a team of senior EHS directors across the region with direct line management responsibilities, including hiring, retention and personal development; partner closely with GOS and C&W Services EHS counterparts.
Drive a culture of Environmental, Safety & Health (EHS) and visible leadership commitment in everything we do across people, assets and brand; continuously assess our organizational maturity across the region.
Identify potential organizational risk across the region and working with operational leaders and regional EHS teams to develop appropriate EHS governance, guardrails, standards of practice and processes in alignment with the C&W global EHS strategy.
Provide a strong focus on serious incident prevention and regional EHS initiatives prioritizing high potential risk to the business.
Foster and maintain relationships with key service line and geographical stakeholders across North America as well as Central and South America; a critical aspect of these relationships will be advising and supporting senior stakeholders in understanding and managing critical, contentious and complex EHS matters including crisis events as and when these arise.
Implement and maintain the EHS management system for the region, including critical standards that drive EHS expectations on the ‘why’ and ‘what’; ensure appropriate connectivity into the broader global integrated management system; support ISO accreditation, surveillance auditing and any expansion to scope.
Develops and implements the annual audit and assurance plan for the region in partnership with service line EHS teams; actively manages close out of findings across the region and prepares/delivers periodic report-outs on assurance activity.
Initiate and lead the EHS Ambassadors initiative and key EHS teams, designed to engage operations and front-line employees in safety, health and wellness in a way that embeds these tenants within the business.
Act as a trusted advisor to senior leaders within the Americas region and will act as a crisis manager during periods of crisis with a permanent position on the North America Crisis Management Team(s).
Assisting the global EHS community with the development and implementation of templates, guidelines and the mobilization of global technology tools, such as Intelex.
Championing global EHS initiatives across their regional business as well as those developed within the region.
Developing, implementing and delivering appropriate regional objectives, targets and improvement programs as part of a regional EHS Strategic Plan which will be developed by the role holder and agreed with management.
Identifying trends in regional accident rates and types and applying strategic initiatives to improve EHS outcomes.
Contributing actively to global ESG reporting.
Identifying lessons learnt from critical incidents and leading initiatives and programs to prevent recurrences. Sharing lessons learnt globally.
Supporting the investigation of significant incidents and identifying lessons learnt. Sharing lessons learnt across the region and globally.
Monitoring and reporting on EHS performance and progress against regional and global EHS objectives. Taking steps to continuously improve the availability and quality of EHS performance reporting.
Managing and developing regional training programmes, methods of delivery and evaluation of effectiveness to ensure employees have an awareness of EHS programs and strategy.
Routinely updating Americas leadership on EHS matters and events.
Working with the global and regional procurement teams to implement robust strategic arrangements for the vetting, supervision and management of contractors and third party suppliers.
Providing support and technical advice to senior leaders to enable them to discharge their accountabilities and responsibilities for health, safety and the environment within their service line.
Monitoring trends in legislation and best practice to support continuing legal compliance and best practice operations globally. Horizon scanning for new relevant legislation and supporting the business to prepare for new requirements.
Managing critical, contentious and complex EHS matters in a professional manner, acting as trusted advisor to senior leadership.
Supporting regional crisis management teams with the development review and testing of local procedures for critical incident management.
Supporting client relationships and business development activities as required.