Talking safety: CEO Ward Nye holds town safety hall discussion with company’s leadership

At the start of the year, Chairman and CEO Ward Nye led a series of Safety Virtual Town Hall meetings to discuss important topics with company employees.

At the start of the year, Chairman and CEO Ward Nye led a series of Safety Virtual Town Hall meetings to discuss important topics with company employees. 

The presentations, given to frontline operational leaders, celebrated Martin Marietta’s 2023 world-class safety performance and outlined key safety protocols and initiatives to guide the company’s future. 

Each session focused on identifying and eliminating potential hazards, acting as Good Wingmen to all colleagues and working together as ONE team to strengthen the Guardian Angel culture and ensure Martin Marietta’s people go home safely at the end of each day. 

Nye discussed the importance of the many safety campaigns at the company, including Why I Work Safely and How to Keep Your ZERO. 

“These campaigns encourage our teams to think deeply about safety. They aim to have our people think outside of themselves and outside of their day-to-day activities to truly consider the importance of safety and how it’s achieved,” he said. “We all have family and friends who we cherish. They’re truly what matters most. Please allow them to serve as our collective motivation to work safely. Remember, there’s absolutely no task so urgent that we can’t take the time to perform our work safely.” 

One of the most impactful moments came when Nye discussed Martin Marietta's Safety Task Force, a cross-functional team that worked across all divisions and business lines to ensure the Guardian Angel safety culture continues to grow and improve. The team met throughout 2023 to organize a companywide safety survey and several safety audits, review the anonymous data that was received, and make plans to strengthen the safety culture based on that data. 

“No matter how successful our efforts may be, ZERO remains our overarching goal,” Nye reminded the viewers. 

Overall, town hall audience members said they were walking away with a renewed sense of accomplishment and were eager to continue working toward world-class safety. 

Carolina Region Safety Manager Ronnie Constable said the focus on achieving and maintaining ZERO is stronger than ever. 

“My biggest takeaway from the town hall was that Martin Marietta hit world-class status again and is still looking to improve on the journey to ZERO,” Constable said. “I think Ward Nye set clear expectations as to what our goal is every day and reminded us that we are doing many things correctly. I am excited to see how we continue to evolve as a safety culture.” 

Southwest Divisional Director of Safety Cherie Marley said the fact that Nye, safety managers and other company leadership took time to gather this information and have a town hallstyle discussion illustrates the importance of safety to everyone at Martin Marietta.

“It shows the leaders of our company value safety. Their commitment cultivates trust in our safety culture, allowing us to engage directly with our CEO through the open forum, which allows us to ask questions and share our thoughts and opinions,” Marley said. “This information is essential to unite us on safety and inspires our commitment to ZERO. My team and I are encouraged to see the strategies and goals we set for 2024 align with those set by our leaders. I look forward to future meetings.”