From wig to rig: Putting ‘Seamless Safety’ at the heart of Acteon. Meet Laura Thomas.  

During 2020 so far, the COVID-19 pandemic has put a huge amount of focus on safety across all businesses and sectors around the globe. Health and safety professionals have quickly had to adapt and apply new strategies and procedures during these unprecedented times. Helping to lead the way at Acteon is Laura Thomas, Executive Vice President Corporate Risk, who is also relatively new in post. In this blog we find out about her past career as a barrister, what led her to go from ‘wig to rig’, and how Acteon is rising to the challenges presented by the current climate.

LAURA THOMAS – EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT CORPORATE RISK AT ACTEON

A barrister of 19 years, Laura Thomas spent the first six in criminal chambers in London prosecuting and defending in serious criminal and health and safety cases. She was seconded to the HSE – UK safety regulator – for a while, which is how she got into the health and safety business. The latter 12 years were spent at leading law firm, Birketts, where Laura founded and grew the regulatory and corporate defence team. Notable achievements for Laura during this part of her career included being named a ‘Leading Lawyer’ in Legal 500 and being recommended in Chambers & Partners. As well as defending court proceedings when things went wrong, Laura also helped corporate clients to improve their safety performance through assisting in strategy, training, and practical compliance.

After this sound grounding, Laura hung up her wig and joined the team at Acteon in 2019 as Head of Risk and has recently taken on the role of Executive Vice President Corporate Risk through internal promotion.

SHAPING SEAMLESS SAFETY

Laura’s first task at Acteon was to get a feel for safety across the Group and refresh the safety strategy and approach. She developed the Acteon’s QHSE strategy – ‘Seamless Safety’, meaning that safety is fully integrated into everything we do. She explains that “It is just ‘how we do things around here’; not an add on, but part of everyone’s everyday job.”

However, this has not been without its challenges. The COVID-19 pandemic has put a huge amount of focus on safety; not only is Acteon required to manage the usual safety issues that arise, which are magnified because of the different ways of working in workshops and on sites, but we need to focus on occupational health in a way that is unprecedented during Laura’s time in safety.

Laura continues “Our fantastic team at Acteon have risen to the challenge and fully embraced the difficult circumstances, with a real focus on not only health and safety but mental health and wellbeing as well. For mental health awareness week, we did an internal campaign ending with a webinar of people across the Group speaking openly and honestly about their challenges with mental health. I was extremely proud to lead this initiative.”

BEST PROJECT AT ACTEON

Since joining Acteon, Laura has been involved with projects across many departments. Already known within the company as a team player, we asked her what the best project she has worked on so far.

She said “Developing our ‘Seamless Safety’ programme and starting to see the results! Each business or operation owns responsibility for QHSE in line with our collective strategy. Acteon supports, encourages, and informs this strategy to ensure a seamless approach to QHSE across all our organisations.”

THE FUTURE OF QHSE AT ACTEON

When asked about the future of QHSE at Acteon, Laura explains “Acteon will continue to role out internally ‘Seamless Safety’ through 2020 with lots of fantastic initiatives to increase engagement in all things quality, health, safety, environmental, security, mental health and wellbeing.”

FUN FACT TIME

Did you know? 

Barristers have worn wigs since the 1600s. These courtroom wigs are commonly seen in white (although if your wig is too white it is a sign that you are junior!). They are crafted out of horsehair and cost about a thousand pounds.  

Looking back at her time as a barrister, Laura recalls with a smile “I once had my wig and wig tin stolen from the boot of my car in East London! Whilst it was annoying, given the cost, it did make me chuckle that someone might be wandering around the streets of East London in my wig.”

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