Andrew Hopkins

This week on the conversation a real treat as Professor Andrew Hopkins joins the conversation. One of my favourite authors and one of those people who I never thought I would have the opportunity to talk to, this conversation is one of the highlights of the show so far. I know you will enjoy it, I know you will learn from it, and I hope you enjoy the conversation as much as I did.

Andrew was an expert witness at the Royal Commission into the 1998 Exxon gas plant explosion near Melbourne. He was a consultant to the US Chemical Safety Board in its investigation of the BP Texas City Refinery disaster of 2005, and also for its investigation into the BP Gulf of Mexico oil spill of 2010. He has written books about these accidents as well as books on the Moura, Gretley, and Grosvenor coal mine disasters.

Over 100,000 copies of his book have been sold.

He has been involved in reviews of Work Health and Safety regulation and regulators and has done consultancy work for major companies in the mining, petroleum, chemical and electrical industries, as well as for Defence. He speaks regularly to audiences around the world about the human and organisational causes of major accidents.

• BSc and MA (Sociology) from Australian National University, PhD (Sociology) from the University of Connecticut.

• Winner of the 2008 European Process Safety Centre safety award, the first in time it was awarded to someone outside Europe.

• Honorary fellow of the Institution of Chemical Engineers in recognition of his “outstanding contributions to process safety and to the analysis of process safety related incidents”

• Life member of the Australian Institute of Health and Safe and recipient of its highest award for “lifetime achievement”.

• Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) in recognition of his “distinguished service to industrial safety and accident analysis”

• Member of the advisory board of NOPSEMA – the Australian National Offshore Petroleum Safety and Environmental Management Authority

Books by Professor Hopkins:

Making Safety Work (Allen & Unwin, 1995)

Managing Major Hazards: The Moura Mine Disaster, (Allen & Unwin, 1999)

Lessons from Longford: The Esso Gas Plant Explosion (CCH, 2000)

Lessons from Longford: The Trial. (CCH, 2002) Safety, Culture and Risk (CCH, 2005)

Lessons from Gretley: Mindful Leadership and the Law, (CCH, 2007)

Learning from High Reliability Organisations (CCH, 2009). Edited Failure to Learn: the BP Texas City Refinery Disaster (CCH, 2008)

Disastrous Decisions: Human and Organisational Causes of the Gulf of Mexico Blowout (CCH 2012)

Nightmare Pipeline Failures: Fantasy planning, black swans and integrity management. (CCH 2014) with Jan Hayes

Risky Rewards: The Effect of Company Bonuses on Safety (Ashgate,London,2015) with Sarah Maslen

Quiet Outrage: The Way of a Sociologist (CCH: Sydney, 2016)

Organising for Safety: How Structure Creates Culture. (CCH Sydney, 2019)

Credibility Crisis: Brumadinho and the Politics of Mining Industry Reform (CCH, Sydney, 2021), with Deanna Kemp

Sacrificing Safety: Lessons for Chief Executives (CCH Sydney, 2022)

Thanks for listening. We have some great guests coming up in future pods so get ready to learn. Until next time, enjoy the rest of your week, and stay safe. https://plus.acast.com/s/health-and-safety-conversations.

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