National Safety Consultants Inc. has its roots in safety culture change and remains on the cutting edge of this discipline with its innovative safety management applications. Our staff experts have personally led culture change initiatives in countless organizations and have outstanding experience in guiding others along this path.  Our founder and leader Samuel J. Gualardo has been doing this for over four decades.   

We believe that the effective management of safety must go well beyond understanding traditional motives and that “the why” must be internalized and applied to attain ultimate success.

Many organizational leaders, managers and supervisors misunderstand "the why” with respect to attaining safety performance excellence.  Some incorrectly believe that striving to achieve performance excellence should be pursued for the purpose or meeting external regulatory mandates or internal organizational policies and goals. Others think that preventing incidents is necessary to reduce direct and indirect costs impacting profitability. Many also believe that improving safety is a way to avoid civil or criminal liability for potentially negligent actions. Although all of these motives have good merit, most organizational leaders, managers and supervisors miss the most important reason to prevent incidents. Frankly, it’s not about meeting mandates. Nor, is it about avoiding cost. It’s also not about getting sued or going to jail. It is really about being our “brother’s keeper”.  

Christianity, as well as other religions taught that most important principle.  We have a clear moral obligation to protect each other. This moral “safety obligation” can be found within the Christian bible in Deuteronomy 22:8 which states “When you build a new house, make a parapet around your roof so that you may not bring the guilt of bloodshed on your house if someone falls from the roof”.  Many in business today believe that OSHA actually created that fall protection regulation…not so apparently!  Moreover, it is not just Christianity that professed a moral safety obligation to protect each other. It can also be found in the Code of Hammurabi derived from Babylonian Law which predated Christianity. Among other codes regarding the causation and remedies for accidents, this code stipulated “If a builder builds a house for someone, and does not construct it properly, and the house which he built falls and kills its owner, then that builder shall be put to death”. Based on these early teachings, we can conclude that the International Building Code in use today obviously was not promulgated recently. The laws we have today are direct descendants of these early moral codes.

Finally, it has been reported that Ralph Nader, an unrelenting consumer advocate, turned the tide on U.S. auto safety in the 1960’s when battling the big three auto makers. He firmly stood his ground against those industry giants when testifying to advance automobile safety during Congressional hearings. The big three automakers were arguing that advances in auto safety would increase the costs of vehicles and hurt their profitability and sales potential. Ralph Nader, in the face of enormous opposition, strongly maintained that designing and manufacturing safer vehicles is the correct and moral thing to do and it must always trump profitability.  We are all now very thankful that his argument prevailed.

If organizational leaders, managers and supervisors clearly understand “the why” regarding the importance of becoming our “brother’s keeper”, the difficulty faced in meeting safety mandates and goals, reducing incident costs, and avoiding liability will become much easier. 

Samuel J. Gualardo MA, CSP, FASSP,  our founder and leader is a dynamic and nationally recognized expert in occupational safety and health management. 
 
Mr. Gualardo has lectured and consulted extensively throughout his career both nationally and internationally and has authored books and articles on safety management. His consulting firm, National Safety Consultants Inc. specializes in helping organizations significantly change their safety culture and attain safety performance excellence. His LeadSAFESafety-Risk Management process is used by numerous organizations globally. One of his clients was recently recognized a safest company in America. Mr. Gualardo also is retained routinely to testify as an expert witness in workplace injury cases.
 
Mr. Gualardo holds a B.S. in Safety Management and a M.A. Degree in Labor/Industrial Relations. He is also a Certified Safety Professional.
 
Mr. Gualardo served on the faculty at Indiana University of Pennsylvania as Director for the federally mandated PA-OSHA Consultation Program. Formerly, Mr. Gualardo held several key positions with Fortune 500 companies including: Director, Corporate Safety and Health, Niagara Mohawk Power; Manager, Safety and Health, Metropolitan Edison; and Manager of Safety, Hershey Foods USA. In those positions, he led his organizations to the achievement of safety performance excellence.
 
Mr. Gualardo is a distinguished past national President of the American Society of Safety Engineers. As president, he was responsible for leading all staff and volunteer functions for the 34,000 member organization.  He is past national President of the Board of Certified Safety Professionals. BCSP is recognized as the leader in high-quality credentialing for safety, health, and environmental practitioners and currently has over 24,000 individuals certified.
 
Mr. Gualardo has been quoted in USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, The Charlotte Observer, The Orlando Sentimental, Business Insurance, Sports Illustrated, Occupational Hazards, Industrial Safety and Health News, Professional Safety, Human Resources Executive and Manufacturing Magazine just to name a few.  
 
In 2005, Mr. Gualardo was nominated by the American Society of Safety Engineers to serve as Assistant Secretary of Labor-OSHA. Also, in 2006 he was again nominated to serve as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Labor-OSHA. 
 
In 2011, Mr. Gualardo was awarded the honor of Fellow, the highest achievement in the EHS profession by the American Society of Safety Engineers. 
 
In 2018, Mr. Gualardo was named Honorary Member of Rho Sigma Kappa, which recognizes those students and members of the Safety Sciences profession who distinguish themselves through academic achievement and exemplary character.