MESSAGE FROM THE CHAIR OF GBRIA, TOM YURA

Message from the Chair of GBRIA

Tom Yura

COO, Cornerstone Chemical Chair ,Greater Baton Rouge Industry Alliance, Inc.

This year marks our 25th Annual Safety Excellence Awards. In 1996, a vision was set with the establishment of this awards program. GBRIA members and our partners in the industrial community banded together with a commitment to have a safer workplace. Through hard work and dedication, we have proven that that an injury free workplace is possible! GBRIA is dedicated to adding value to our industrial community by focusing our efforts on safety performance and workforce development. This work is performed by our various committees and are organized around 6 key tenets: 1) Achieve an injury and incident free workplace, 2) Ensure access to a competitive and skilled company and contractor workforce; 3) Build support in the local community for retention and growth of our industries; 4) Facilitate operational excellence through networking and exchanges; 5) Maintain a vibrant, successful and involved membership, and 6) Provide stewardship to budget and maintain the highest levels of financial integrity.

Our program today, is all about our first tenet- Achieve an Injury and Incident Free Workplace. The Safety Excellence Awards program supports our goal by recognizing the safety performance of our partners by conveying GBRIA’s strong support of contractor safety performance and acknowledge that our contractors are an important part of our own workforce. We want to make GBRIA member workplaces injury free, and we are counting on YOU to help us achieve this.

Message from the Chair of GBRIA Continued

There may be no other time in recent history where such an endeavor has been so challenging. As COVID-19 spread across the globe, our industry, being critical to the infrastructure of the country and our community, had no choice but to yet again, band together and find truly new and unique ways in accomplishing our goals. If nothing else, our response to the challenges presented by the pandemic have shown our resiliency, creativity, and passion for safety. As we continue to move towards resuming life as we knew it before the pandemic, let us not forget how we solved these complex problems, how we came together – while having to be physically distanced, and how we overcame to keep our industry, the heartbeat of Louisiana, moving and supplying the needs of Louisianans, Americans, and beyond.

Our events today are about opportunity and celebration; a chance to recognize those who went above and beyond in 2020 with friends and colleagues. As we celebrate our successes, I leave you with a challenge. I ask each of you to rededicate yourself and your endeavors to providing workplaces that are the shining example to every industry; workplaces that lead the country and beyond in our commitment to keep our greatest assets, our employees, going home not just in the same way they showed up, but better, happier, and fulfilled.

I am very pleased to see every one of you here today, and I hope you share in my excitement over this celebration of safety achievement. Thank you, and congratulations to all the contractors represented here on your nominations and all the plants here who nominated and stewarded these safety programs that have gone above and beyond to become the best of the best.

Platinum Annual Sponsor