Case Studies

What prompted your transition from engineering into health and safety, and when did you realise health and safety was the right career for you?

Beginning my career in engineering gave me a strong appreciation of equipment, process safety, problem solving and the importance of effective controls. As I moved into broader leadership roles, I came to see health and safety as fundamental to how we deliver performance responsibly. It is not separate from operations; it is central to how we protect people, sustain reliable supply and create the conditions for teams to do their best work.

I realised this was the right direction for me when I saw the impact leaders can have by making risk visible, creating an environment where people feel confident speaking up, and ensuring the right decisions are made before issues become events. That foundation has become even more important as I have moved into a more senior role, now leading around 300 people in the Steriles Value Stream, where visible safety leadership is essential to creating the right culture, supporting good decision making and delivering for patients in the right way.

You’ve worked for GSK for over 8 years. Can you tell us about the company and your role?

GSK is a global biopharma company with a purpose to unite science, technology and talent to get ahead of disease together. As a focused biopharma company, GSK discovers, develops and delivers medicines and vaccines, with an ambition to positively impact the health of 2.5 billion people by the end of the decade. The company focuses on preventing and treating disease with specialty and general medicines as well as vaccines, investing in core therapeutic areas including respiratory, immunology and inflammation, oncology, HIV and infectious diseases.

I am the Steriles Value Stream Lead at GSK Barnard Castle and a member of the site leadership team. My role is to lead the safe, compliant and reliable manufacture, filling, inspection, assembly and packaging of sterile medicines, while also supporting new product introduction. The value stream brings together around 300 operations colleagues and cross-functional partners across safety, quality, technical, engineering and support functions. In a highly regulated and technically complex manufacturing environment, my focus is to ensure we deliver for patients in the right way: protecting our people, maintaining quality and compliance, and supporting reliable supply.

You were recently named the 2026 Best Candidate for the NEBOSH Level 6 National Diploma for Occupational Health and Safety Management Professionals, Unit DN1, which you studied with NEBOSH Gold Learning Partner Phoenix Health & Safety. Congratulations!

A) What motivated you to study this qualification?
I was motivated to study the NEBOSH National Level 6 Diploma to strengthen my capability as a leader in a complex manufacturing environment where decisions directly impact people, quality, compliance and continuity of supply. I wanted to deepen my understanding of occupational health and safety beyond operational practice, while developing the confidence and professional credibility to ask better questions, challenge effectively and support more systematic risk management.

B) How has achieving the diploma impacted your career so far?
Achieving the diploma has strengthened the way I contribute as an operational leader. It has helped me connect legal duties, risk assessment, human factors, leadership behaviours and safety culture into a more integrated approach. It has also given me a stronger professional foundation when working with safety, engineering, technical and operational teams, helping me bring both practical manufacturing experience and a broader health and safety perspective to decision making.

What is the most valuable thing you learned through your NEBOSH studies?

Effective health and safety is built through leadership, systems and culture as much as through technical controls. The diploma reinforced the importance of understanding how work is actually done, how people make decisions in real operating conditions, and how organisations can either strengthen or weaken safe behaviours. It also reinforced the need to focus on the controls that matter most, verify they are effective in practice and learn from early signals before they become significant events.

From your professional experience, give us an example of a challenge you faced that provided you with a real learning experience.

A key learning experience has been leading in an environment where safety, quality, compliance and supply must all be delivered together. In sterile manufacturing, the decisions we make can have significant consequences, so it is important to balance operational urgency with the discipline to pause, assess risk and involve the right expertise. That experience has reinforced the importance of psychological safety and visible leadership. People need to feel able to raise concerns, challenge assumptions and stop activity when required. It has also shaped how I approach investigations, looking beyond the immediate issue to understand underlying systems, behaviours, leadership signals and how controls are sustained over time.

How do you see health and safety evolving in the future?

I see health and safety becoming even more integrated into business leadership and organisational resilience. Data, digital tools, automation and advanced analytics will help organisations identify trends, anticipate risk and make better decisions. However, the fundamentals will remain the same: strong leadership, competent people, effective controls and a culture where issues are raised early and acted on. The future of health and safety will combine better insight from technology with a deeper understanding of human factors, wellbeing and work design, so that safety is built into how work is planned, led and improved.

What do you find most rewarding about working in health and safety?

The most rewarding part is seeing the impact that strong health and safety leadership has on people and performance. In manufacturing, success depends on delivering safely, reliably and to the required quality standards. Helping teams see safety as part of professional excellence, rather than a separate requirement, is very rewarding. I also value the opportunity to build capability and confidence in others: encouraging colleagues to recognise risk, speak up, contribute ideas and help create a workplace where people can thrive.

What is next for your professional development?

My focus is to continue developing as a senior operational leader who can integrate safety, quality, people leadership and business performance in a way that delivers sustainable impact. I want to keep applying the diploma in practice by strengthening safety culture, improving risk management maturity and supporting the development of others. I am also keen to continue building capability in human factors, organisational learning and leadership influence, because these areas are critical to helping teams make good decisions and deliver in the right way.

What advice would you give to someone just starting their career?

My advice would be to stay curious, build a strong technical foundation and take time to understand how work is really done. Spend time with people closest to the work, ask questions and listen carefully to their experience. Health and safety has the greatest impact when it is practical, credible and connected to the realities of the workplace. I would also encourage people to seek feedback, find mentors and take opportunities that stretch them. Qualifications such as NEBOSH are valuable, but the real impact comes from applying that learning with integrity, humility and the confidence to challenge when something does not feel right.