Top Safety Leaders Under 35 | Young Achievers

Richer says, “As a result, we have seen a significant decrease in collisions and incidents related to driver behavior. By being able to proactively coach our employees on their driving habits, we have effectively prevented accidents before they occur, greatly enhancing overall safety within our operations.”

Fellow winner Melissa Fleury of engineering contractor Modern Niagara is already a professor of trade safety at Humber College in Toronto despite only being 25, allowing her to:

• educate new workers entering the industry

• extend her commitment, particularly toward health and safety in plumbing and carpentry

However, she cites her biggest impact as being promoted to health and safety regional manager, enabling her to directly use her influence as a young leader.

“It has allowed me to mentor and grow my team as well as the program,” Fleury says.

She oversees five HSE specialists and sites within the Toronto and SWO regions, along with managing WSIB claims, policy and procedure development, and communications to executives. 

 

“My passion to keep people mentally and physically sound is my main driver; we want our workers to return home safe and sound to their families”

Alexandra WilliamsModern Niagara

Sonia Isoufi is another of 2024’s Young Achievers. In her role as manager of health and safety, overseeing the entire fleet of locations for luxury department store Holt Renfrew, she has earned praise for being a leader and bringing teams together to promote health and safety.

Her responsibilities include:

• conducting risk assessments

• developing safety protocols

• providing and coordinating training

• ensuring compliance with relevant regulations

This approach allows her to ensure all goals have real value and a high impact.

“For example, a new scorecard system was developed to measure Joint Occupational Health and Safety Committee H&S performance within the Internal Responsibility System model. This helped our teams stay focused, on track, and also know what it takes to be successful,” explains Isoufi. “It also created healthy competition and even recognition opportunities for those that were doing well, better than the previous year, and also going above and beyond in different areas. Overall, this tool really helped the team understand their contributions to achieve momentum for positive change.”

There is something that sets COS’ Young Achievers 2024 apart. They have all been able to gain an edge and mark themselves out.

Below, some of the winners share what separates them from the rest.

• Alexandra Williams (Modern Niagara): “My strength, resilience, compassion, and understanding come together to give me the best superpower of just being me, which allows me to further support our teams and company as a whole.”

• Ketrina Richer (Transdev): “My exceptional ability to connect with people. I excel at building meaningful relationships with my peers and colleagues, ensuring I truly understand their needs and concerns. This skill allows me to effectively address health and safety issues in a way that supports and enhances their operations rather than hindering them.”

• Sonia Isoufi (Holt Renfrew): “I am a self-starter. As my roles advanced with more responsibility, I was fortunate to have managers who wanted to know my views. I slowly moved away from a ‘do as I am told’ relationship with managers who asked, “Where do you believe the focus should be?” I realized how much I enjoyed being a part of the decision-making process. As soon as I felt I had the support to make things happen, I was in full force mode.”

• Melissa Fleury (Modern Niagara): “I would say my best quality is organization and determination. Both allow me to continue learning while organizing the HSE program and team to succeed.”

• Shannon Goodhue (Modern Niagara): “The fact that I’m such a people person has truly helped me make connections with people in our company, and that’s given me more opportunities to get involved with tasks and help come up with plans for complicated tasks. Also, building those relationships has made it easier for people to come to me with concerns or to ask for help.”

To be successful, safety professionals need to adopt a focused mindset to broaden their understanding and become more effective.

This translates into fewer accidents, safer working environments, and an overall boost to employee well-being.

Discussing how she approaches this, Fleury highlights how crucial communication is.

She says, “As a woman in construction, it is important to be willing to learn and collaborate with the experts in the field to not only get a different perspective but also to see how you can apply and develop excellent safety strategies to ensure everyone goes home safely every day.” 

Whereas for Richer, it is about extracting the maximum from situations to deepen her knowledge base.

“By consistently saying yes to new challenges, I’ve been able to broaden my experience and enhance my skills in health and safety,” she says. “Additionally, my flexibility and adaptability have allowed me to navigate various situations effectively. Coupled with a strong willingness and ability to learn quickly, these traits have been key drivers in my success.” 

 

“I’m always open to learning from everyone around me, and I ask questions about how our field staff complete their tasks, which has helped me learn more about their jobs and understand the different ways of doing things”

Shannon GoodhueModern Niagara

And this sentiment is echoed by Isoufi.

She adds, “I have stayed curious. In my professional life, this has helped me achieve a growth mindset of constantly learning.”

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• Armand Sanguigni
  
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• Brayden Ambo
  
  National Health and Safety Specialist
  
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• Brendan Johnston
  
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• Darren Avery
  
  Partner
  
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• Kara White
  
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• Katlin Handel-Jospeh
  
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