1. NAME: Theresa Purdy
CANDIDATE QUALIFYING SURVEY:
Describe how you have reengineered processes and systems in EH&S
During my career, I have had many opportunities to reengineer EHS Systems and processes. I have
found that the most efficient way to go about this is to first understand the opportunities for improvement
and the state of the EHS culture within the organization. This is accomplished by conducting
comprehensive assessments based on current policies, procedures and systems. The basis of these
assessments is not to develop a list of items to be fixed or failures, but to be able to group these items in
such a way that that they are able to be used to identify the root cause of the failure. The failure of the
process can usually be traced back to one or more system failures or root causes. Once the root causes
are identified, the issues can be ranked by priority and added to a strategic improvement plan that can be
distributed out over time ensuring that the most important issues, those that have a high enough potential
for effecting life, the environment or causing property loss and down time, are addressed based on their
risk ranking in a matrix.
Once all of the facts are gathered, the findings organized and a strategic plan has been developed, I
would then present the strategic EHS Development plan to the stakeholders and obtain their buy in based
on facts, my level of credibility and the level of trust that has been developed over time between myself
and the stakeholders or other members of the team.
For example prior to my tenure at Kaneka Corporation, the company received several fines for
nonconformance with PSM regulations. The PSM system which was in place during that time was a 20+
year old paper based system which upon examination contained many flaws. Those flaws were identified
by forming a team of qualified personnel which I led to assess the current system against current policies
and regulatory standards. Many opportunities were identified and the results were put together in a GAP
analysis. The GAP analysis consisted of items from missing signatures to the loss of man power hours
during the process.
It was discovered that during the Management of Change process, it was taking at least 25 man hours not
including engineering and design, to obtain approval for PSM covered changes in the facility. After
developing the GAP analysis, and mapping the original process, the team was able to map a new process
that addressed the short comings of the original process and reduced man hours from 25 man hours to 6
man hours per MOC. New process, procedures and forms were created and a 6 month trial was begun.
Prior to the trial of the process, site wide training was conducted to ensure that all personnel completely
understood what the new process was and how to use the process according to regulatory standards.
During the trial, it was suggested that we should try an electronic system. The team then began searching
for a software manufacturer who could use our process map and forms to create a software program that
would allow us better document control and a smoother approval process as we were still experiencing
some delays in obtaining approval signatures due to vacations and other issues which took designated
signatories off site.
Once a firm was identified and the program was created, we were able to implement the new system in a
period of three months with a fairly easy transition. Four months after implementation, we were able to
bring in regulators to review the new system and all notices of violation were rescinded.
Describe how you have applied, sold in, and implemented “breakthrough” thinking to drive quantum
performance improvements in the EH&S area.
I have used break through thinking to drive quantum performance improvements in all areas of EHS. I
have studied a program called the Leadership Challenge and subscribe to its principals. This program,
and my Six Sigma training, has taught me to think outside of the box. I consider myself more of a leader

2. than a manager based on the theories of the Leadership Challenge. I consider my way of empowering
and encouraging the individual members of the many members of the many teams that have been on
over the past few years to be out of the box thinking.
Once short term and long term goals have been set, I find that it is easier to achieve those goals not only
by forming diverse focus groups to seek out solutions to achieve sustainable solutions for long term goals,
but by ensuring that I have identified the right team members and that they are in the right roles on the
team to achieve optimal results in minimum time frames.
When I worked for United Technologies Corporation, I was going through the incident logs after an
incident where a fork truck driver ran over his own foot on the docks with his fork truck resulting in several
fractures to the front of his foot. After getting his medical needs assessed, we began the root cause
analysis and several root causes were identified.
Outside of the obvious, not turning off the fork truck, not setting the brake, and several others, it was
identified that one of the contributing factors might be that the driver was not wearing safety boots. In a
standard root cause analysis, more often than not, contributing factors are over looked as possible root
causes. It is my nature to leave no stone unturned.
Going through the OSHA logs and other incident records, I discovered that there had been multiple
incidents where toes had been injured in the facility and, after looking at the root causes, I noted that it
was never addressed that employees were not required to wear safety toed boots.
I knew that recommending a safety shoe policy was going to be a challenging issue due to the cost of
implementation and the fact that we were a union environment.
I knew that I had to show that safety toed shoes were a necessity and that I would have to justify the cost.
I would also have to convince the rest of the leadership team, and the union leadership, that they would
have to wear safety toed shoes when on the shop floor as well.
I began by taking the information from the RCA to the leadership team and was able to obtain buy-in to
conduct some additional PPE evaluations on the work stations in the facility. I also began to compile all of
the costs from lost time injuries over the last 5 years which included workers compensation costs,
overtime man hours for replacement, line down time for investigations, and other lost productivity. By this
time, I had 2 teams working on a long term resolution to the issue of broken bones in the foot.
After collecting implementation cost, forecasting the cost of not implementing the program and reviewing
the PPE assessments it was clear that there was a need for implementation not only by accident
prevention, regulatory requirement, but by cost. I thought that I had enough information to go to the
leadership team and present my case.
I was shot down due to what I thought was implementation cost not being accounted for in the current
year. I counter proposed that we implement in the next calendar year and the issue was tabled for further
discussion.
Over the next few months, I was able to obtain buy in from the union and had many sidebar conversations
with the leadership team. I began wearing safety toed work shoes myself every day to support the cause
and showing the rest of the team how well they fit and how comfortable they could be. Before I knew it,
many of the leadership team were asking additional questions and were purchasing safety shoes for their
departments out of their own budgets. Within the next four months, the program was implemented site
wide. It turned out, that we had the money after all and all we had to do was lead by example through
empowering others to make the right choices and removing a few road blocks that the union had put up.
Explain how you used collaboration and strong influencing skills to move the organization through a
complex and somewhat controversial change.

3. While I was at Celanese in North Carolina, one of my duties was to assess three sites from an EHS stand
point in order to make recommendations to the corporate office on how we were to close one of those
facilities and move its processes to one of the two remaining facilities. The facility that was to be closed
was an EPA Superfund Site. I knew that this was not going to be an easy task.
I began by making site visits to each of the sites and having conversations with management on each site
as well as with hourly employees. I began a legal review of all of the permits (air, water, and waste), and
their current standings along with the previous 5 years data for each site.
After reviewing all of the data, I ordered necessary soil and ground water samples as well as a few other
items that were required by due diligence and collected the findings to bring back to the team for
discussion. I knew that I did not have good news for the team and that what I had to tell them was going
to change the original plan significantly. I needed to make a few more site visits to confirm my suspicions
and I needed a new path forward to pose to the team so that we could somehow accomplish our goals.
I had several meetings with The EPA and the corporate legal department in order to confirm my original
suspicions. It was going to be more costly to close the plant that we had targeted for closure than to keep
it open. However, I still needed a way to reach our vision.
While making my additional site visits, I began to focus on resources at each facility, and began thinking
about how we could shift those resources in order to keep the superfund site open. I was able to map out
a sketchy plan. This plan would require removing some equipment from one of the original sites. I had to
get engineering involved in order to test my theories. After several months, we had a plan to take back to
the executive team.
That plan was to reallocate some equipment and change the configurations of some existing equipment in
order to keep the facility that was targeted for closure open and increase productivity at that facility and
save ourselves the cost of abating the entire facility according to EPA regulations. The plan called for a 6
month business interruption with a total cost savings of $2.5 million over the original plan after we took
into consideration the costs of closing the original targeted facility.
This was a difficult task, but in the end we were able to increase productivity at the originally target facility,
close a smaller facility and save a few jobs in the process. This was indeed a successful complicated and
controversial venture.
Detail how you would approach the development of an EH&S strategy during a period of significant
growth.
I believe that the development of a sustainable EHS strategy first depends on one’s ability to accurately
identify the current state of the EHS management systems in place, to identify its weaknesses and assess
its strengths.
This would be to conduct a complete assessment of those systems, by way of testing policies and
procedures against regulatory standards and internal practices. This process includes assessing the
current mindset of company leadership as well as line leadership and hourly personnel in all departments.
The assessment should also include a review of all available findings and detail reports from all previous
audits.
I would use the data collected and grouped by regulatory topic and EHS Systems that should be in place
using a model that I created based on Some Six Sigma strategies and benchmarking of other programs
as well as regulatory models for World Class EHS programs. The data would then be ranked by
importance using a risk ranking matrix that is based on a German theory that was created in the 40’s.

4. After ranking this data, cost analysis would have to be conducted in order to identify budget requirements.
Then the data can be prioritized and a strategic EHS plan can be developed.
Once the EHS plan has been put into place, other items such as ISO certifications for Safety and
Environmental programs should be easily developed and certified.
I would use this model to formulate a 1, 5, and 10 year strategic improvement plans for the company EHS
program that would certainly be recognized by other organizations as world class.
Describe how you will challenge the organization in pursuit of best in class EH&S.
I would challenge each member of the organization to be as committed to Health and safety of its
individuals as I am to every individual and the environment. I will do this in great part by leading by
example. I believe that great leaders have great followers and that great followers are empowered to
bring about change no matter what the circumstances.
People need the right tools to change. I will remove road blocks and make the path clear so that
personnel can feel enabled to bring about change to the point where they embrace it. I would help to use
this challenge to bring about a culture change within the facility by showing each individual in the
organization that safety is a personal development tool. Only by changing the outlook of people or by
replacing those people resistant to change can change be effective.
I would ensure that every member of the workforce held safety as a personal value. I will use the creation
of positive stress in the workforce as a motivator for change.
By challenging the organization to change its culture and adopt a culture of concern for the well-being of
their coworkers, themselves and the environment, through empowerment and encouragement I will bring
about positive results and achieve a safety culture that is truly world class.