Have you met Andrew, Manager of Regulatory and Consulting Services with HRHSE (Human Resources, Health, Safety and Environment)? Spend the next few minutes getting to know him a little better.
What is your first U of A memory?
My first real and valued experience at the U of A was coming to meet with Rob Munro, Director of EHS, and Lynne MacGillivray, Director of Facility Planning and Projects, about a new life as a Security, Health and Safety Advisor with the Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry. I was struck by the energy of the place, its promise for meaningful work and the warmth and authenticity of its leaders.
My first actual memory… I was relatively new to Edmonton in 2005 and wondering why the traffic was so bad in the middle of the city and thinking I was going to be late for my meeting downtown.
What’s something your coworkers don’t know about you?
On occasion my colleagues run into someone who knows me from my volunteer life when I was the President of the Canadian Society of Safety Engineering (CSSE). I had the opportunity to travel throughout Canada and around the world and got to do cool things like have breakfast with Chris Hadfield, chat with Peter Mansbridge about safety, meet Justin Trudeau before he started in politics, spend a day with Walter Gretzky, share a stage with four different leaders of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) at the Capital Building in Washington DC, and worked with some amazing safety leaders from around the world.
What’s your favourite distraction?
I’m an avid Sci-Fi and Fantasy buff and like playing video games on my home PC. Had a cool experience a few years ago. One of my colleagues has a partner who works for a local video game development company and I came across an Easter egg in a game mentioning her and her children. Currently, playing Star Trek online.
Last summer I also caught the camping bug and have been exploring Alberta with my partner Debbie.
If you were enrolling in one course, program or degree right now, what would it be?
I was always fascinated by astrophysics and cosmology when I was growing up and still follow this in the popular media. This field is really challenging our concept of reality and continues to discover the underlying mysteries of the universe and our life here on Earth. I would pick something along these lines.
What’s a weird pet peeve you have?
Probably not very weird… I get really frustrated by meetings without an implicit or explicit purpose, where the person who called it has not established an agenda or stated what will be changed or achieved as a result of our time together. Where the environment supports it, I respectfully offer my thoughts on how we can focus and be productive.
You can invite anyone — alive or dead, real or fictional — to dinner. Who would it be?
My father… he’s no longer with us and I dearly miss him. He inspired me to make safety my life’s work. He was a family man and was well respected and liked by his co-workers. I've tried my best to make him proud.
If you could see any live performance tomorrow, what would it be?
I used to live about 45 minutes from Stratford in Ontario. I would like to return and see a production of Twelfth Night or A Midsummer Night’s Dream. I’ve seen them both there and would like to do so again. It’s like being wrapped in a warm blanket of the English language.
What advice would you give your 18-year-old self?
Keep at it… each and everyone of us can change the world… one person and one act of kindness at a time.
What’s one thing you can’t live without?
My bicycles. I have come to depend on them for my health and my life.
What three words describe your U of A experience?
World changing awesomeness with three exclamation points!!!
