Coming Full Circle and Beyond Checklists

Safety didn’t start as the headline, it became the mission. Jeff Mulligan explains how risk management moved from a back-office task to a leadership priority, and why the next big challenge lies beneath our feet: aging, hidden infrastructure.

How does a finance and public‑policy veteran become a champion for prevention and safety leadership in Alberta? In this Safety Spotlight episode, Jeff, COO at Astec Safety and an early catalyst behind Utility Safety Partners connects boardroom strategy with field realities. Drawing on experience in politics, banking, and early fiber‑optic deployments, he blends business discipline with practical, on‑site insight.

Jeff’s position is straightforward: treating safety as compliance leaves value on the table; treating it as strategy protects people, assets, and communities. The stakes are growing as experienced hands retire and institutional memory thins. If knowledge isn’t captured and shared, avoidable failures will follow.

From a catastrophic explosion in Sherwood Park that galvanized Alberta’s damage‑prevention movement to Astec’s turnaround from deep losses to durable performance, Jeff traces the real cost of neglect and the compounding return of leading with safety. His lens is both sober and optimistic: difficult problems yield to clear ownership, good data, and consistent follow‑through.

What he’s watching next

• Quiet risks in rural and legacy utilities where maps, records, and markings lag the work.
• Why safety leadership belongs at the executive table not folded into HR or finance as a side duty.
• How AI and digital tools can amplify expert trainers rather than replace them.
• The knowledge transfer crunch as veteran tradespeople and safety leaders retire.

For organizations ready to move past audits and slogans, Jeff offers a blueprint: make safety personal, elevate it to strategy, and stop underestimating what’s underground.