Steve Willis

AHC Group Senior Associate

Biography

AHC Group Senior Associate Steve Willis

President of Willis Environmental Solutions LLC based in Tucson, Arizona, Steven P. Willis joined the AHC Group as a Senior Associate in 2007.

Steve is the former Global Director of Whirlpool Corporation's health, safety, and environmental (HSE) management system, having retired after 33 years of service, including over 22 years as the senior HSE 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.

Prior to Whirlpool, Steve had seven years of experience working for NASA on research projects involving regenerative life support systems for long-duration manned space flights at NASA's Langley Research Center in Virginia.

Key Career Accomplishments

1. Converted company's environmental management system from a reactive to proactive mode focused on environmental risk management by minimizing the number of hazardous waste disposal facilities used, by eliminating use of PCB, TCE, asbestos, and underground storage tanks.
2. Lead evolution of company's HSE management system as it grew from 10 U.S. plants in three countries in 1990 to 65 plants in 14 countries in 2007.
3. Developed and implemented management processes that:
   • Assessed risk from soil and groundwater contamination;
   • Implemented permanent, long term solutions yielding the lowest total cost over the life of the projects;
   • Assured consistent, permanent solutions regardless of limitations of some local laws;
   • Where third parties were involved, provided leadership focusing on clearly defining common objectives and then establishing solutions that met those objectives;
   • Provided primary leadership for over $60 million in soil and groundwater remediation projects in all 14 countries where Whirlpool has manufacturing operations; and
   • Used a minimum number of consultants as strategic partners who minimized total costs, rather than lowest costs for individual project tasks.
4. Developed and implemented detailed global HSE standards that provided consistent, high-level environmental protection in all countries, even where existing laws were not sufficiently protective. Compared these global environmental standards with requirements of ISO 14000. Found that both perspectives lead to similar levels of protection, with the main difference being varying degrees of process documentation.
5. Established global audit process that assured consistent and full compliance with both the local environmental laws and Whirlpool's global environmental standards.
6.  Introduced global metrics and global training to assure consistent performance at all manufacturing plants worldwide.
7. Partnered with Corporate Accounting to established a reserve setting process which complied with U.S. laws and provided stakeholders with the information they needed; this process received high marks from third parties who were familiar with Whirlpool's and other companies' reserve setting processes.
8. Recognized sustainable development (corporate social responsibility) as an emerging issue when Whirlpool began to expand its business globally in early 1990s. Participated in evaluating and building on Whirlpool's global market research, 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. Led Whirlpool's work with IKEA in partnering to define practices that would be viewed positively by future generations.

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.

Steve has been married to Pam, a retired elementary school teacher, for over 37 years. They have two grown children, daughter Tori and son Greg. Steve and Pam relocated from Michigan to Arizona in 2007, where they both find retirement exceeding their high expectations, particularly when Steve can continue to build on his career while working with an outstanding group of clients.

For securing an AHC Group visit with Steve Willis, contact the AHC Group President directly at bruce@ahcgroup.com, (518) 583-9615.

<< back to top