Key AHC Group Assignments:

1. Facilitating client workshops to share best practices and identify emerging issues.
2. Assisting in developing sustainability and corporate social responsibility strategies.
3. Merging diverse EHS management systems evolved from multiple country cultures.
4. Evaluating stakeholder needs.
5. Identifying major EHS risks and opportunities and drafting relevant action plans.
6. Benchmarking EHS leaders to identify opportunities for improvement.
7. Developing and deploying global EHS standards.
8. Establishing global EHS metrics and communicating results.
9. Assisting clients in quantifying and communicating value of EHS to business.
10. Producing and deploying global environmental training programs.
11. Developing audit programs for EHS compliance and management systems.
12. Improving processes for remediation and real estate transactions.

Biography

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Steve is the former Global Director of Whirlpool Corporation's environment, health, and safety management system, having retired after 33 years of service, including over 22 years as the senior EHS professional for the Corporation. All but four of his years with Whirlpool were directly or indirectly involved with HSE responsibilities at the research, manufacturing, and corporate leadership levels. During Steve's EHS leadership at Whirlpool, he led the transition from a reactive U.S. environmental management system to a global, integrated EHS governance process viewed by several international consultants and acquired businesses to be more robust and effective than the ISO 14000 standards.

The four years with Whirlpool, which only tangentially related to EHS, involved coordinating and developing a $120 million long range capital improvement plan for one of Whirlpool's manufacturing plants, and leading a department with plant-wide focus to improve plant productivity. This experience provided a greater understanding of business issues that were very applicable to EHS leadership.

Prior to Whirlpool, Steve had seven years of experience working for NASA both as an undergraduate student and then as aerospace scientist. His primary responsibility involved research and development of regenerative life support systems for long duration manned space flights at NASA's Langley Research Center in Virginia. He was also the lead engineer in the initial development and testing of a zero-gravity shower for the International Space Station.

Steve graduated with honors from Virginia Tech University with a B.S. in Engineering Mechanics, and from Vanderbilt University with an M.S. in Environmental and Water Resources Engineering and the recipient of a Whirlpool Fellowship in Environmental Studies. Steve is a registered professional engineer in the State of Ohio. He chaired the Environmental Council consisting of over 50 member companies for the Manufacturers Alliance in the mid-1990s. He also chaired Annual Campaign and then the Board of the United Way of Sandusky County, Ohio, in the early 1980s.

Key Career Accomplishments

• Led the transition from a reactive environmental management system for 10 U.S. manufacturing plants in 1985 to a global, integrated EHS governance process for 65 plants in 14 countries in 2007.
• Assisted in developing and implementing sustainability and corporate social responsibility strategies.
• Developed and implemented processes for remediation management that assessed risk at all facilities; focusing on clearly defining common objectives and then establishing solutions that met those objectives; implemented least total cost, permanent solutions; provided primary leadership for over $60 million in soil and groundwater remediation projects; and partnered with Corporate Accounting to established a reserve setting process.
• Developed and implemented detailed global EHS standards that provided consistent, high-level environmental protection in all countries, even where existing laws were not sufficiently protective.
• Established global audit process that assured consistent and full compliance with both the local environmental laws and Whirlpool's global environmental standards.
• Introduced global metrics and global training to assure consistent performance at all manufacturing plants worldwide.
• Participated in evaluating and building on Whirlpool's global market research in the early 2000s, which revealed that long-term corporate success correlated strongly in all parts of the world to a company's performance in protecting the environment and successfully managing all other social issues.
• Lead EHS due diligence of the major acquisitions of KitchenAid in 1987, Philips Corporation's major appliance business in Europe in 1992, and the Maytag Corporation in 2006, plus over 30 individual plant acquisitions in Europe, South America, India, and China. In each acquisition, he led the integration of these companies and plants into the Whirlpool EHS Governance Process.

To secure an AHC Group visit with Steve Willis,
please contact the AHC Group President directly.
bruce@ahcgroup.com • (518) 583-9615