Safety culture Performance measurement Leadership

The 2025 CEOs Who ‘Get It’

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2025 CEOs Who Get It
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Jennifer Scanlon

Jennifer Scanlon

President and CEO
UL Solutions
Northbrook, IL


A global leader in applied safety science, UL Solutions transforms safety, security and sustainability challenges into opportunities for more than 80,000 customers in more than 110 countries. UL Solutions delivers testing, inspection and certification services, together with software products and advisory offerings, that support its customers’ product innovation and business growth. The UL mark serves as a recognized symbol of trust in customers’ products and reflects an unwavering commitment to advancing the organization’s safety mission. UL Solutions employs 15,000 workers.

Notable accomplishments

  • Launched the “Safety Starts Here” initiative called the “Safety Moment,” which has become a cornerstone of UL Solutions culture. Every significant internal meeting starts with a Safety Moment.
  • Spearheaded the initiative 5S (Sort, Set in Order, Shine, Standardize and Sustain). This powerful initiative translates across cultures and languages.
  • Implemented initiative to help managers lead with EHS principles in mind. Training includes the impact of safety performance, hazard recognition, job safety analysis, incident reporting and response, and more.
Jennifer Scanlon

Describe your personal journey to becoming a CEO who “gets it.”

Ever since I was a teen, safety has played a central role in my life. As a certified Red Cross lifeguard, I spent seven summers warning kids to “walk – don’t run” on slippery pool decks. On a few occasions, I pulled swimmers out of the water when they were in over their heads. During my time as a lifeguard, I noticed the UL mark on flotation devices, and I associated the brand with safety and trust. My Red Cross safety lessons and that early recognition of the UL mark helped shape me into the leader I am today.

Throughout my career, I’ve had a fierce devotion to safety – particularly strategies to protect employees and customers. That devotion, in fact, led to my decision to accept the role of president and CEO at UL Solutions. I’m proud to say that we’re a global leader in applied safety science, and we’re driven by our mission of working for a safer world. We know that safety starts here – with us.

Our global “Safety Starts Here” program acknowledges that we each have the ability and responsibility to help protect our co-workers, stakeholders and communities. This initiative is key to our company culture. It examines safety practices across all facilities and then implements improvement plans led by the environmental, health and safety group, along with leaders from across the organization.

What’s the biggest obstacle to safety at your organization?

At UL Solutions, safety is the focal point of everything we do – we strive to be our customers’ most trusted safety, security and sustainability partner. Our leaders stress that safety always comes first. No task is so urgent that we can’t take the time to do it safely.

This is critical because we frequently work on the leading edge of technology. We constantly analyze existing risks and devise techniques to mitigate them – while striving to anticipate new, unforeseen challenges associated with evolving technology. This is true for the built environment, energy storage systems, cybersecurity and many other areas in which we operate.

We face the constant challenge of trying to anticipate the dangers of tomorrow. Our 80,000 customers around the world rely on us to apply safety science to innovation. We recognize that safety is essential for innovation.

To maintain a focus on safety, we start every major internal meeting with a safety moment – a brief reminder that applies to everyone. Our leaders conduct “Gemba walks” and consistently facilitate strong communications with employees and customers. Our employees use safety stand-downs, stop-work authority and many other tools to promote workplace safety.

Safety always comes first. Whether our employees are climbing wind turbine towers or visiting chemical manufacturing laboratories, they remain steadfastly focused on our mission of working for a safer world.

Why is safety a core value at your organization?

At UL Solutions, safety is not only our business, it’s our mission. Our 15,000 employees around the world are driven by our mission of working for a safer world. When I visit our various labs and offices, I consistently see staff members embodying our mission.

Safety is the foundation and the North Star for all our operations. And we maintain the same steadfast dedication to safety for our employees that we do for our customers.

With a 130-year legacy and founded to do something for humanity, UL Solutions has expanded from our original focus on electricity – which was a new technology at the time. Today, we address an array of safety challenges related to well-being, sustainability and security. We provide testing, inspection and certification services, and complementary software and advisory offerings, as our customers’ most trusted safety, security and sustainability partner.

We’re known for our UL mark, which serves as a recognized symbol of trust in our customers’ products and reflects our unwavering commitment to advancing our safety mission. We help our customers innovate, launch new products and services, navigate global markets and complex supply chains, and grow sustainably and responsibly into the future.

As I often say to our team, “Safety is the ultimate expression of responsibility and respect for fellow colleagues.”

How do you instill a sense of safety on an ongoing basis?

Every day, it’s my responsibility to lead with safety always being top of mind. And it gives me great satisfaction to see that my team shares this philosophy.

One particularly meaningful example is the way that UL Solutions employees – at all levels, around the world – have enthusiastically embraced the safety moment. We launched this tremendously successful initiative as part of the “Safety Starts Here” program, and it has evolved into a cornerstone of our corporate culture. Every significant internal meeting at UL Solutions begins with a safety moment. The presenter briefly covers a topic – ranging from heart health tips to cyber scam warnings – so that safety remains everyone’s top priority.

Another powerful initiative is the “Safety Mindset” module, which is required for all employees. This training helps employees develop situational awareness to proactively identify, manage and prevent risks involving daily work activities.

Additionally, our “Lead Safe” Lab and Operations Safety Leadership Training is a global initiative that helps managers focus on EHS principles on a daily basis. Topics include the impact of safety performance, hazard recognition and job safety analysis.

Our employees heavily rely on our incident management platform called “Shield.” They’re encouraged to submit safety observations, near misses, and incidents related to EHS and/or security (including cybersecurity). Importantly, learnings from incidents are shared for everyone’s benefit. The “Shield” system has enhanced our incident investigation process and impact, and we tie its data to what we consider our company’s key results.

Our global initiative 5S (sort, set in order, shine, standardize and sustain) translates across our global culture, helping to ensure safety data is carefully tracked and measured at every lab and office location. Sites conduct self-assessments, EHS specialists conduct site visits and third-party EHS audits are regularly completed.

How does your organization measure safety?

As a safety science company, analyzing data is at the heart of what we do. Our strategy and planning are data driven.

We meticulously track leading indicators such as EHS performance, impact of EHS training, change related to 5S inspections, and learnings from workplace observations and near misses. EHS questions are incorporated into our employee engagement surveys so that they’re tracked and acted on.

Maintaining safety requires an unwavering focus. As new technologies are developed, the risk landscape changes. Therefore, we must remain perpetually vigilant. We share best practices with peers and listen closely to our employees, always striving to anticipate where the next challenge will arise. All these efforts reinforce our mission of working for a safer world.

What role do off-the-job safety and mental health and well-being play in your overall safety program?

Throughout our organization, we promote health and safety for every employee at every location. We strive for all employees to achieve physical, mental, emotional, financial and social health. We offer significant volunteer time off benefits that are embraced by our employees.

When personal challenges arise, we want employees to know that assistance is available and easily accessible. We offer free counseling services via our employee assistance program. This provides services for employees, their spouse or domestic partner, and members of their household, all of whom can access independent, confidential assistance and referral services for a variety of concerns – 24 hours a day, seven days a week and 365 days a year.

Some of these EAP issues include behavioral and mental health, parenting, adoption, child care, senior care, education guidance, financial services referrals, legal consulting and identity theft.

Additionally, I previously described our safety moment, which precedes each major internal meeting at UL Solutions. These safety moments often cover topics that are relevant to an employee’s time away from work, including kitchen safety, healthy sleep habits and cyclist safety tips.

We also facilitate events that promote the well-being of employees’ families, such as a presentation during Cybersecurity Month on cybersecurity tips to protect children.

We offer a global employee intranet site called Healthy Minds, which provides access to resources for improving health, safety and well-being, and supporting ongoing mental health. The site is updated regularly with events, actions and resources. Topics covered have included nutrition, grief and loss, autism, anxiety, and social media.

At UL Solutions, we view all these offerings as key investments in our most valuable resource: our people.

 

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Bob Carr
January 28, 2025
This is always my favorite issue to read. So many great stories and to see how safety is influenced and driven by top leader that understand value of H&S with their organizations. Several years ago, I worked for Owens Corning when their CEO, Dave Brown, was selected as a CEO that gets it. He was also selected for the cover. I felt a huge sense of pride to belong to an organization that was recognized for their efforts, to have my leaders like Dave, and my Safety Director, Dan Dimas, drive OC’s H&S processes to be world class. It reminds me of the feeling I got hearing Paul O’Neil’s speech to their shareholders that started off talking about safety.