Integrating Corporate Safety Culture and Process Safety after Merger - a Personal Perspective

In today’s globalized market, most companies have experienced a merger or acquisition.  How can Corporate ensure that the current process safety program is integrated into the newly acquired company fast and effectively to avoid increasing risks of process safety incidents?  Has a thorough evaluation of the current process safety standards, past incident history, and overall safety culture of the newly acquired company been completed before the acquisition?  And how can we be sure to not simply dismiss the acquired companies’ safety programs, since they could potentially help improve our own corporate program? 

Having experienced several mergers and acquisitions, I have found that this integration process can be extremely difficult, taking many years and requiring may resources.  It becomes even more difficult when we deal with integration on a global level, where cultural differences are not only limited to the company but to the way of life. If the newly acquired company is not up to corporate process safety standards, the business may not have many years until integration can be completed to avoid a serious incident from occurring. 

In this presentation, I would like to discuss personal experiences with mergers and acquisitions and the integration of the corporate process safety programs while working as a chemical process/safety engineer in the speciality chemical industry as well as the pharmaceutical/biotech industry.  I will also include examples of process safety incidents that occurred shortly after an acquisition took place.