Keynote Speaker

Anita Tarab
Sr. Director of DC Environment, Health, Safety and Quality and Learning & Development (retired)

Electrical Safety from reactive (tragedy) to proactive (innovation)

This presentation will discuss the broad historical evolution of safety from Triangle Shirtwaist to Edison to today’s safety standards such as NFPA 70E. Historically, it took more than two decades to halve the fatalities from 310 per year to 164 per year. However, recent trends have only slightly been lower (around 150 per year) and have stagnated over the last decade even with improvements in policies, procedures and technologies. Why is this so and how can we further drive these fatalities down to zero? This presentation will discuss the different roles and approaches to electrical safety based on the author’s varied industry experience in mining, OSHA and the tech industry (data centers). Focus will be provided on electrical safety and methods used in these industries to drive the fatality count to zero. Discussions on past, present and future initiatives to reduce safety incidents will be discussed and the use of Artificial intelligence, Machine Learning and technology will be explored to achieve this common industry goal of zero fatalities.

Anita Tarab is Senior Director of Sustainability, Environment, Health,Safety, Quality and L&D for Global Data Centers at Google. She is responsible for ensuring the health and safety of employees and contractors at all Google Data Centers, as well as construction sites across the globe as well as end to end quality. Her team has implemented management systems and programs that not only assure health, safety, and environmental compliance, but have moved the needle in terms of EHS and Quality innovation. She has been recognized for her programs focusing on mental health in operations and construction.

During her 40 year career as an environmental, health,safety and quality professional she has lived and worked in well over 50 countries, supporting and mentoring local initiatives. Prior to joining Google, Anita was the Global Director of Health for Newmont Mining, where she was based in Denver, Ghana, Peru, and Suriname. She was the recognized pandemic preparedness leader for the corporation and was instrumental in Newmont’s response to the Ebola epidemic and participation in the Private Sector Response Initiative.

Anita has a BS in Environmental Engineering, an MS in Occupational Health, and a Juris Doctor. She is passionate about building and implementing scalable systems to support long-term sustainability structures through creative and holistic avenues.