Our Team
Caterpillar Safety Services is a team that has its own unqiue culture within Caterpillar. As a solutions-based group within a manufacturing company, we are entrepreneurial in spirit. Our team values include customer focus and grit, straight talk and transparency, and collaboration and initiative. We believe we exist to improve lives and bring out the best in people through safety culture improvement processes.
Leadership
Consultants
Account Managers
Production
Marketing
CATERPILLAR SAFETY SERVICES LEADERSHIP TEAM
The leadership team is comprised of former customers, safety directors, certified EHS professionals, organizational development experts and project management professionals. This leadership team firmly upholds our team values and mission.
Zach Knoop
General Manager
Once serving as a Director of Corporate Safety for a Fortune 500 company that was a customer to Caterpillar Safety Services, Zach joined the team as a consultant and transitioned into account management, then business development manager, and now proudly leads this passionate team as the general manager.
Fun Fact: Mountain biking fanatic.
Brett Haskins
Global Consulting Manager
Brett is a Certified Safety Professional who has more than 25 years of experience working with everyone from executives to front-line employees. He joined the team as a consultant and moved to overseas to launch the consulting business in Australia. Upon his return to the United States, he became the Global Consulting Manager leading our team of experienced consultants.
Fun Fact: Continuously improving his golf swing.
Justin Ganschow
Business Development Manager
Justin, a Certified Safety Professional, served as an EHS professional at a Caterpillar manufacturing facility that was using the services of Caterpillar Safety Services. He joined the team as a consultant and transitioned into account management. Now as the business development manager he inspires our account managers and is a well known keynote speaker and writer on the topic of safety culture.
Fun Fact: Licensed video footage of himself being charged by a herd of wild boars on a hunting trip to Discovery Channel, Animal Planet, TruTV and Fox News.
Jodi Martel
Product Support Manager
Jodi originally joined the team as an account manager and transitioned into a leadership role where she manages the production team out of Portland, Oregon. She manages the custom training projects for our team and earned her Project Management Professional certificiation.
Fun Fact: Used to tap dance in a performing tap dance company.
David Crouch
Director of Research & Development
David has served since 1979 as an organizational development professional helping teams and companies of all types build and sustain safety and cultural excellence. Starting as a consultant on our team, he now overseas the research and development of new products and services for Caterpillar Safety Services. He's also the author of two leadership books called "The Excellent Experience" and "12 Steps to Excellence."
Fun Fact: Went skydiving for the first time to celebrate his 50th birthday.
Caterpillar Safety Services Consulting Team
Our consulting team is comprised of talented facilitators with diverse backgrounds in safety, operations, leadership, HR, organizational development, military, and psychology. They lead our customers -- all the way from the executive office to the front-line -- through training, coaching and continuous improvement processes.
Rick Beall
Senior Safety Consultant
Rick started his 20+ Caterpillar career after four years in the US Air Force as an Aviation Technician. Utilizing his experience as a certified Six Sigma black belt, Rick confidently leads diverse teams to develop or improve processes using continuous improvement tools. His hands-on experience in a variety of industries allows him to fully connect with front-line employees while his consulting background allows him to comfortably interact with senior leaders.
Fun Fact: Loves to travel and has visited 45 states and 36 countries.
Seth Bretscher
Senior Safety Consultant
As a 30-year United States Air Force veteran, Seth has executive operationally-focused experience, managed safety programs, investigated crashes and effectively implemented lean management processes. He is a dynamic and engaging instructor with experience teaching college level academic courses at Purdue University. He has led diverse teams of individuals and successfully implemented strategic plans.
Fun Fact: Previously a top-tier swimmer, setting both a high school and Big 10 record and ranking as high as 24th in the world in the 400M Individual Medley.
Todd Efird
Senior Safety Consultant
Todd is a Certified Safety Professional with more than 30 years of experience. He's served companies in the utility, construction, forestry, pipeline, mining and manufacturing industries to help them improve their safety culture performance. Todd’s experience and contagious passion for safety excellence allows him to connect with all levels of an organization.
Fun Fact: Has traveled to 45 of the 50 states.
Kevin Ellison
Senior Safety Consultant
Kevin has worked his way from a front-line journeyman to an executive leader, totaling over 37 years in utility experience, providing him with rich insight and experiences to relate to all levels of an organization. He has 20 years of safety and operational experience primarily in the electric and gas utility industry, and he holds a level of expertise in leadership, safety culture and safety process improvement.
Fun Fact: Played football and was a bodybuilder. Won Mr. Louisville contest and competed for Mr. Kentucky.
Jennie-Fe Engber
Senior Safety Consultant
Jennie-Fe joined our team with 15 years of cross-functional human resources experience with a strong emphasis on change management, culture/work environment assessments and employee engagement. She has a strong background in facilitating interactive workshops and training professionals of all levels, both in English and Spanish.
Fun Fact: An avid, die-hard Kansas City Chiefs fan.
Abby Fansler
Communication Consultant
Abby specializes in building and implementing communication strategies to launch and support cultural initiatives. She works with executives, safety champions and communications professionals to build multi-channel messaging campaigns that maximize communication opportunities.
Fun Fact: Met Muhammed Ali outside of small, hometown courthouse at age 5.
Jenny Krasny
Operational Risk Consultant
Residing in Australia, Jenny has almost 20 years of local and international consulting experience with some of the world's most respected mining, construction, engineering and manufacturing organizations. With a Masters in Organizational Psychology, Jenny is passionate about the psychology behind safety, strategic development, culture change and transformation, leadership development and change management.
Fun Fact: Can play the piano accordion but only knows how to play german drinking songs.
Alyssa LaHood
Project Coordinator
As project coordinator, Alyssa is responsible for managing all signed contracts. She acts as the liaison between the customer, consultant and production team to ensure deliverables in the contracts are scheduled, materials arrive on time for events and she also works with accounting on the invoicing. Alyssa is naturally skilled at connecting people and processes.
Fun Fact: Was a trained baton twirler for 8 years.
Tristina Meche
Senior Safety Consultant
As a Safety Professional at a publicly owned utility that was a customer to Caterpillar Safety Services, Tristina joined the team with hands-on experience implementing our continuous improvement process. She brings high energy to her work and is passionate about supporting organizations create and sustain a positive safety culture.
Fun Fact: Owns horses who receive chiropracatic adjustments twice a year.
Chip Steensma
Senior Safety Consultant
Chip brings more than 20 years of leadership, management and supervisory experience, as well as a keen ability and skill-set to lead organizations through the culture-change journey. Chip has a strong track record of producing results and is effective at clearly communicating concepts, promoting teamwork and staying focused on organization objectives. Chip is a certified Six-Sigma Black Belt and is a Certified OHSAS18001 and ISO9001/14001 Lead Auditor.
Fun Fact: Adopted daughter from Guatemala at the age of 9 months. She is 17 now and the joy of his life.
Caterpillar Safety Services Account Managers
The business development team has diverse backgrounds but all excel at building trusting relationships with our customers.
Rob Ashlaw
Industry Account Manager
With a background in Continuous Process Improvement, Rob understands first-hand how to implement processes that result in improved quality, safety and production while decreasing company costs. That's why he's passionate about sharing our continuous improvement process with customers. He's worked across multiple industries including Quarry & Aggregates, Paving, Heavy Highway Construction, Safety and Concrete & Asphalt Supply.
Fun Fact: Born on a couch at home.
Shae Birkey
Industry Account Manager
With more than 15 years of experience in the Environmental, Health and Safety (EHS) profession, Shae applies knowledge from his experiences to his current role as an account manager. His passion is to educate others on the process of empowering front-line employees, engaging and educating supervisors in positive accountability practices, and supporting leaders to be visibly committed to improving safety culture.
Fun Fact: Hunting dog trainer and Training Director for the local NAVHDA Chapter (501c3).
Tim Kelly
Industry Account Manager
Tim's background is in safety, environmental and industrial hygiene. He is a skilled practitioner and strategist of the Zero-Incident Performance (ZIP™) Process – the formula behind Caterpillar’s renown injury reduction journey – implementing the process within 10 different Caterpillar manufacturing facilities prior to joining our team. Tim excels at helping organizations in a variety of industries match specific pain points with proven solutions and he's passionate about making a positive impact on people and supporting companies in reaching new levels of achievement.
Fun Fact: Avid disc golfer who hit his first hole-in-one on July 11, 2020.
Kelly Scott
Industry Account Manager
Kelly has over 15 years in business-to-business sales experience. She has a wide range of experience in various industries including IT, healthcare, manufacturing, finance and public sectors selling services, hardware and software solutions.
Fun Fact: DIY aficionado.
Valerie Thiel
Industry Account Manager
Valerie specializes in connecting industry leading companies with customized cultural solutions for management challenges. She has more than 10 years of experience forging partnerships with global organizations in pursuit of systems, process and performance excellence.
Fun Fact: First high school job was building fences in the summer.
Caterpillar Safety Services Production Team
The production team works all the magic behind the scenes. From writing contracts and designing content to setting up assessments and shipping consulting material -- this team is the working gears of our business.
Brad Cosgrove
Graphic Designer
As the graphic designer of the team, Brad is the creative mind behind our consulting and marketing materials, specializing in video, photography, web design and training program development.
Fun Fact: Climbed to the top of the Sydney Harbour Bridge
Todd Macy
Project Coordinator
Todd manages the set up, data collection and out-puts for all Safety Perception Surveys and Safety Leadership Assessments. He also is the site administrator for SafelyHome, our online learning center, and go-to tech support contact on the team.
Fun Fact: Received private pilot certification in 2004.
Amy Miles
Communication Specialist
Amy is our proposal writer and Salesforce administrator. She excels at developing and improving processes and is pursuing education in computer information systems and a certificate in Database Administration.
Fun Fact: Once won a haiku contest at a bar she wasn't even at.
Danielle Solorio
Office Coordinator
Danielle is responsible for a host of administrative support activities including printing, organizing and shipping all materials for customer events. She also supports customer-facing survey activities.
Fun Fact: Horror film fanatic.
Caterpillar Safety Services Marketing Team
The marketing team is responsible for promoting our products and services to generate awareness and interest to customers.
Samantha Melchiori
Marketing Manager
Samantha has a background as an engineer, but has shifted her career toward strategy and marketing. She excels at developing and implementing strong strategic plans for marketing and other areas of the business.
Fun Fact: Lean innovation junkie.
Rachel Proper
Marketing Consultant
Rachel has a background in communication but transitioned to marketing in 2011. As the business grows and evolves, so does marketing. Rachel is passionate about collaborating with others to meet goals and adores the culture of this unique team at Caterpillar.
Fun Fact: Had a spinal fusion at 14 due to scioliosis and has a metal rod in her spine.
Jamie Wood
Marketing Coordinator
Jamie manages all speaking engagements and events for Caterpillar Safety Services while also having responsibility for lead management in Salesforce. Her high energy brings life to the team.
Fun Fact: Certified scuba diver.
