APM Terminals takes an unusual organisational step to further improve its safety culture: the global port and inland operator has decided to assign a senior executive as an internal Safety Activist. A first in the port business.
This step is described by APM Terminals’ CEO Kim Fejfer as a strategic move to achieve a major leap forward in safety. The new position will be filled by Martin Poulsen, for the past six years CEO of APM Terminals’ Europe region, having been with APM Terminals since the company was established as an individual entity in 2001.
Reducing Fatal Accidents
The recently issued Sustainability Report 2011 from APM Terminals openly stated that despite progress in the overall safety performance, APM Terminals has yet to achieve a significant reduction in fatal accidents.
Strategic Assignment
The new role as Safety Activist is not a traditional executive job, but a temporary strategic assignment of a complex nature with license to investigate and improve. APM Terminals will uphold a permanent safety organisation, but part of Mr. Poulsen’s internal activist duties will be to work closely with – and potentially develop – the existing safety team. After the assignment is completed he is expected to return to a high-level business line role. Martin Poulsen himself states that the task of progressing safety culture and performance is ‘probably the most important challenge at this point in time in the port industry’.
Picture: Martin Poulsen (https://www.apmterminals.com/aboutus.aspx?id=13869[APM Terminal])
