Eric Assp

I am happy to announce I have accepted the position of Safety Director for the Saudi Binladin Group (SGB) working on the Jeddah Tower which will be the tallest building in the world. I thought after 13 years when I left Saudi Arabia in 2020, I was done with work overseas. After bouncing around to a few projects, and waiting for a project that continued to get delayed, I am honored to be selected for this prestigious project. I expect my start date to be after New Years.

Renovation and expansion of existing tech facility. Contractor is a nationwide specialty contractor.

Here, I was trusted with safety management for a multibillion-dollar plant expansion project, Borstar Bay 3. Based on safety risk identification and contingency planning expertise, I transformed the safety landscape both on the night and the day shift. When I joined, I noticed the off-site/on-site communication gap as the biggest hindrance towards safety enforcement policies and regulatory compliance. Collaborating with the PMT teams and educating the field workers on SOPs remedied the situation. Doing so also helped minimize welding, electrical, scaffold, crane rigging, and fall protection hazards. All in all, I was able to build a safety-first environment for all the teams in no time. Key Skills: Risk Tolerance Enhancement | Executive Reporting | Team Building.

Promotion Track: Division Safety Advisor (2010 - 2012), Dept. Safety Advisor, Northern Area Projects Dept. (NAPD) (2012 – 2013), Dept. Safety Coordinator, Northern Area Projects Dept. (NAPD) (2013 – 2016) At this Fortune 500 global oil and gas giant, I led 30-35 safety personnel across 6 divisions distributed over numerous job sites for the Clean Fuels project. I oversaw training program restructuring and review, contractor pre-qualification, and resource allocation. Aside from being a leading member of high-profile committees, I also fulfilled audit and due diligence duties, field verification and SOP documentation, and emergency response plan development. One of my key contributions in this role was investigating safety outlook of high-risk projects as part of the Contractor Fatality Investigation and Injury Reporting task forces. The PM departments with the highest incident rates and poor safety audit scores were prioritized. By leveraging 5-year incident history and Construction Safety Audit Scoring System (ConSASS) data for trends analysis, I highlighted the gaps in their safety culture and remedied the situation. On another occasion, I was appointed as one of the key approving authorities for the selection of 8-10 regional contractors for a high-rise scaffold. Overall, I drove safety culture excellence for over dozen oil and gas plants and refineries within a 3-hr driving distance. Some of these projects involved brownfield construction which required additional strategizing and safety planning. The common brownfield hazards I led mitigation and contingency planning for included crane and rigging risk, confined space entry, trenching and excavations, Lockout/Tagout (LOTO), hydrostatic testing, etc. Key Skills: Job Hazard Analysis (JHA) | Succession Planning | Near Miss Reporting | Contractor Safety Training | OSHA & MSHA Compliance | Policy Development, Review & Adherence | Due Diligence | PPE Adherence.

Here, I spearheaded safety protocol implementation for the mega Manifa project, encompassing both onshore and offshore operations. Due to its unique geographical construction challenges, I facilitated the creation of 28 artificial islands for drill sites by setting up platforms for water injection, extraction, pipelines, subsea cables, and interconnections with onshore operations. One of the critical safety risks I mitigated was H2S exposure for the workers by demarcating safety circle and ensuring strict compliance within. Key Skills: Physical Hazard Analysis | On-Shore/Off-Shore Communication | SOP Enforcement.

Here, I was appointed as the department safety coordinator soon after joining for cutting the concerningly high fatality rate during the final stages of gas plant construction project. I did so by addressing safety threats revolving hydro testing, welding, scaffolding, and crane and rigging work. Additionally, I streamlined the auditing and reporting process, nurtured a sense of accountability, and encouraged corrective action planning. Thus, I promoted safety practices and boosted the levels of organizational commitment. Key Skills: Heavy Equipment Safety | Employee & Environmental Health | Workflow Optimization.

In the early years of my construction safety career, I started off with a fast promotion track. For example, here, I was promoted to the director-level position within 6 months of joining for readjusting safety priorities across 200 job sites. I studied 10-year injury history and associated workers’ compensation costs, especially high-dollar accidents and revamped the reporting structure, the safety manual, and the training material. As a result, I quickly reversed the staggering incident rate of 13. Key Skills: Risk Mitigation & Contingency Planning | Cost Effectiveness | Value Engineering.