Facility Rockstars

This summer brought some incredible conversations to Facility Rockstars, but across different industries, roles, and experiences, the same lessons kept showing up.

In this special solo episode, Jay Culbert looks back at the conversations and experiences that defined the summer, from Facility Rockstars events and the special EHS series to discussions about curiosity, adaptability, leadership, safety, and building stronger relationships.

Jay reflects on lessons from Tim Reynolds, Maria Ruiz, Nick Petrosino, Rich Martelli, Pete Susca, Lindsay Seiberling, Jason Hyde, Darin Goodwin, and several past EHS guests, while sharing the ideas that have stuck with him most.

The biggest takeaway? Great facility leaders don't just understand their buildings. They understand their people.

Jay also gives a preview of what's ahead this fall, including upcoming events, new collaborations, future guests, and more opportunities for the Facility Rockstars community to connect.

Takeaways:

• Stay curious enough to ask questions and humble enough to admit when you don't know something.
•  Leadership isn't about always having the answer. Sometimes it's about knowing which question to ask.
• You can't control every challenge, but you can control how you communicate, respond, and bring people together.
• Safety only works when you get the human side right.
• Build relationships before you need them. Trust is much harder to create in the middle of a crisis.
• Behind every process, piece of equipment, safety program, and facility are people.

Links:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jay-culbert-2675998/ 
• Facility Rockstars Website: https://www.facilityrockstars.com/ 

Shoutouts: 

• Tim Reynolds
• Maria Ruiz
• Nick Petrosino 
• Rich Martelli 
• Pete Susca
• Lindsay Seiberling
• Jason Hyde
• Darin Goodwin
• Colleen Walker
• Vanessa Brady
• Lori Santoli
• Jessica Goodhue
• Don Bezek
• Don Watson

Behind every well-run facility is a network of trusted relationships, thoughtful planning, and leaders who know that success isn't built alone.

This week, Jay sits down with Troy Hollenbeck, an experienced facilities and operations leader, to discuss what he's learned after more than 25 years in the industry. From managing reactive maintenance environments and navigating post-COVID supply chain challenges to building strong vendor partnerships and creating exceptional customer experiences, Troy shares practical lessons that apply to every facilities professional. Throughout the conversation, he explains why patience, empathy, and continuous learning are some of the most valuable tools a leader can have.

Takeaways:

• Strong relationships produce stronger results. Troy believes the best way to improve vendor performance is simple: make people want to work with you. Building trust, showing respect, and understanding the challenges vendors face creates partnerships that consistently deliver higher-quality work.
• Patience is one of the most valuable leadership skills. Facilities work is naturally reactive, but slowing down long enough to fully assess a problem often prevents bigger mistakes. Taking a measured approach leads to better decisions and more effective solutions.
• Preventative maintenance creates operational stability. While emergencies can't always be avoided, investing in preventative maintenance helps reduce downtime and gives teams a better chance of resolving issues quickly when they do occur.
• Standardization makes maintenance more efficient. Maintaining consistent equipment across facilities simplifies repairs, improves parts availability, reduces inventory complexity, and allows teams to respond faster when equipment fails.
• Customer experience extends far beyond the building itself. Whether it's curb appeal, store presentation, or amenities for EV charging customers, every detail shapes how people perceive a facility and whether they'll choose to return.
• Never assume you know everything. Troy encourages leaders at every stage of their career to stay curious, continue learning, and recognize that every team member brings valuable experience and perspectives to the table.

Quote of the Show:

•  "The simple thing is don't expect that you know more than everybody else."

Links:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/troy-hollenbeck-65717221/ 
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/troy_hollenbeck72/ 
• Company Website: https://www.cumberlandfarms.com/ 

To close out our six-week series dedicated to environmental health and safety leadership, this special compilation episode brings together highlights from Jay Culbert's conversations with six standout EHS professionals: Colleen Walker, Vanessa Brady, Lori Santoli, Jessica Goodhue, Don Bezek, and Don Watson. Rather than a single interview, this episode weaves together their most memorable stories, from redesigning lockout/tagout procedures to make them intuitive on the plant floor, to navigating management-of-change processes for new equipment and chemicals, to rethinking how facilities are designed with universal accessibility in mind.

Across every story, one thread holds the whole series together: EHS is fundamentally a people profession. Guests reflect on building cross-functional trust, using automation to eliminate hazards without eliminating jobs, balancing safety requirements against food-safety regulations, and the lasting lessons learned from leading teams through COVID-19. Whether you've followed the whole series or are just tuning in, this finale distills six weeks of hard-won wisdom into one conversation about why the technical side of safety only works when the human side comes first.

Takeaways:

• Make safety procedures visual, not just verbal. Complex lockout/tagout steps became far more reliable once translated into color-coded, numbered visual indicators that workers could follow in the moment — not just recall from training.
• Build a cross-functional review process for management of change. Before bringing in new equipment, chemicals, or technology, loop in a team to review risks, permits, and training needs upfront — it's cheaper than discovering the gap after the fact.
• Automate to eliminate hazards, not to eliminate people. Look for opportunities to remove human error from dangerous manual tasks while redirecting — not replacing — the people who did them.
• Understand your industry's unique constraints. Safety solutions that work in one sector (like food manufacturing, with its strict food-safety rules) may need to be adapted rather than copy-pasted from another.
• Design facilities around all users, not just the average one. Applying universal design principles — equitable use, simplicity, low physical effort — early prevents costly retrofits and creates genuinely inclusive workplaces.
• Lead with relationships before you need them. Getting to know coworkers across departments — their interests, their pressures — makes it far easier to gain buy-in when it's time to introduce a safety change.
• Communicate constantly, even when you don't have all the answers. Consistent, two-way communication between the floor and leadership builds the trust that safety initiatives depend on to actually stick.

Quote of the Show:

•  "At the end of the day, it's a person, then it's people, and then you're back to people."

Links:

• Colleen Walker
  • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/colleenm-walker/  
  • Website: https://www.stanleyblackanddecker.com/  
  • Email: [email protected]  
• Vanessa Brady
  • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vanessa-a-brady-ms-cih-csp-0096316/  
  • Charles River Laboratories Website: https://www.criver.com/  
  • American Industrial Hygiene Association: https://www.aiha.org 
• Lori Santoli
  • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lori-santoli-csp/ 
• Jessica Goodhue
  • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessica-goodhue-b50744271/  
  • Website: https://channelfish.com/  
  • Email: [email protected] 
• Don Bezek
  • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/donbezek/  
  • Website: https://griffithfoods.com/   
• Don Watson
  • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/donwatson94/  
  • Website: https://www.oracle.com/ 

In the 5th installment of our special EHS series, host Jay Culbert sits down with James Chapdelaine, Senior Manager of Environmental Health and Safety at CIRCOR International, shares how nearly two decades in EHS taught him that his real job isn't safety; it's people. 

He explains why the strongest safety programs are never built behind a desk, but developed alongside the employees who use them every day, and how listening, communicating, and following through are what actually earn buy-in on the floor.

James also walks through how a failed pre-shift inspection program at his former company, Stanley Black & Decker, evolved from a generic paper checklist to a fully digital process,  a case study in his personal motto, "small improvements, lasting change." He closes with a candid conversation about staying "steady in the storm" as a leader, breaking down silos between EHS, facilities, and HR, and what drives him outside of work. 

Takeaways:

• Lead with trust, not authority. Safety programs succeed when people believe in why they exist — not just because they're written well.
• Invite every concern, safety-related or not. Being willing to help with small, non-safety issues is often what opens the door to bigger trust.
• Close the loop, every time. Even when a fix takes time, communicating progress keeps people from feeling ignored — and keeps them coming back with feedback.
• Expect to fail, then adapt. James's pre-shift inspection program went through three iterations — generic paper, detailed paper, then digital — before it worked.
• Make incremental progress your operating philosophy. "Small improvements, lasting change" keeps overwhelming projects from becoming paralyzing.
• Stay steady under pressure. A calm, consistent leader gives a team permission to stay focused instead of panicking.
• Break down departmental silos. EHS, facilities, maintenance, and HR need to move together — rolling out a program without the right partners in the room is a setup for failure.

Quote of the Show:

•  "You can have the best written safety program or procedure in the world... but if people don't understand it, they don't believe in it, then it's just set up to fail right out the gate."

Links:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamesezrachapdelainecshm/ 
• Website: https://www.circor.com/ 

Creating a strong safety culture isn't about policing people. It's about earning trust, communicating clearly, and helping employees understand why safety matters.

In this episode of Facility Rockstars, Jay Culbert sits down with Darin Goodwin, HSE Senior Manager supporting Takeda Pharma Global at CBRE Global Workplace Solutions. Drawing on more than 30 years of environmental health and safety leadership, Darin shares practical lessons on building a culture where people feel empowered to speak up, stop unsafe work, and take ownership of protecting themselves and those around them.

From improving training engagement and documentation to changing workplace behaviors through empathy instead of authority, Darin explains why safety professionals are at their best when they work with people instead of against them. The conversation also explores leadership, communication, technology, distracted workplaces, and why every safety decision has an impact that extends far beyond the individual involved.

Takeaways:

• Communication removes uncertainty: Clear expectations and open dialogue eliminate the "gray areas" where misunderstandings and safety issues often develop. Great safety leaders communicate just as effectively with executives as they do with frontline employees.
• People need to understand the "why”: Rules alone rarely change behavior. When employees understand why a procedure exists and the real consequences of ignoring it, they're much more likely to make safer decisions.
• Safety culture is built through relationships: Employees respond far better to leaders who coach and support than those who simply enforce rules. Working alongside people creates trust, accountability, and long-term buy-in.
• Strong processes create safer outcomes: Checklists, documentation, supervisor approvals, and consistent procedures help remove uncertainty and ensure important safety steps aren't skipped when work gets busy.
• Every incident impacts more than one person: A workplace injury affects coworkers, families, productivity, and the organization as a whole. Safety isn't just about preventing accidents. It's about protecting people's lives both inside and outside of work.
• Never hesitate to stop unsafe work: Stop-work authority exists for a reason. Speaking up before something goes wrong is one of the most important responsibilities anyone can have in creating a safer workplace.

Quote of the Show:

• "Always be open in communication with people so they know what you're expecting. You get more with sugar than you do with spice."

Links:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/daringoodwin/ 
• Website: https://www.cbre.com/services/manage-properties-and-portfolios/facilities-management 

Part three of our special six-week series spotlighting Environmental Health & Safety (EHS) professionals features Jason Hyde, EHS Manager at SIGCO, Inc., whose approach to safety leadership goes far beyond compliance.

Jason shares why building a strong safety culture starts with understanding people, not just policies. From creating personal connections that change behavior to navigating language barriers, mental health, and emergency preparedness in today's evolving workplace, he explains why the best safety leaders focus on trust, communication, and employee engagement. This conversation offers practical insights for anyone responsible for protecting people while building a culture where employees genuinely want to do the right thing.

Takeaways:

• Safety culture is built through people, not policies. Compliance is essential, but regulations alone don't change behavior. Creating personal connections and helping employees understand why safety matters is what drives lasting cultural change.
• Make safety personal. Every employee has a different motivation for working safely. Leaders who take the time to understand what matters most to their people can create conversations that lead to meaningful behavior change.
• Your workforce is one of your greatest resources. Instead of trying to solve every communication challenge alone, empower employees to become part of the solution. Leveraging bilingual subject matter experts and involving frontline workers strengthens both understanding and trust.
• Never compromise what's right. Safety professionals will inevitably face pressure to take shortcuts. Jason explains why standing firm, presenting facts, and leading with integrity is essential for protecting both employees and organizational culture.
• Mental health is part of workplace safety. Supporting employees also means recognizing when someone may be struggling outside of work. Jason encourages safety professionals to care for both their teams and themselves because difficult situations are an unavoidable part of the job.
• Challenges create better leaders. Jason reflects on how COVID forced safety teams to rethink communication, training, and operations, ultimately creating new tools and approaches that continue to improve workplace safety today.

Quote of the Show:

• "Never compromise what's right. You compromise that value once, and you'll compromise it every time after that."

Links:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jason-hyde-b02158144/ 
• Website: https://www.sigcoinc.com/ 

What separates a great EHS leader from a good one? According to Lindsey Seiberling, it starts with understanding that safety isn't about enforcing rules; it's about helping people accomplish their goals safely.

In this episode of Facility Rockstars, Jay sits down with Lindsey Seiberling, Environment, Health & Safety Manager at Boston Scientific, to discuss how successful EHS professionals build trust with operations, adapt to increasingly complex work environments, and create cultures where safety becomes a shared responsibility. Lindsey also shares leadership lessons from her experiences at Boston Scientific, Amazon, and Clean Harbors, offering practical advice on building diverse teams, reducing waste, and embracing humility as a leader.

Takeaways:

• Build relationships with operational teams by first understanding their goals and objectives before recommending solutions.
• Spend time where the work happens. Walking the floor and talking with employees provides insights that can't be found behind a desk.
• Safety professionals are most effective when they're viewed as partners helping people succeed—not as obstacles.
• Hire people whose expertise complements your own. Strong leaders aren't afraid to admit what they don't know.
• Diverse backgrounds and perspectives often lead to better safety improvements and stronger problem-solving.
• Sustainability starts with evaluating every process and asking where waste can be eliminated before it is created.

Quote of the Show:

• "Hire where you're weak. You're never going to know everything." 

Links:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lindsey-seiberling/ 
• Website: https://www.bostonscientific.com/en-US/home.html 

Shoutouts: 

• Paul Donhauser: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pauldonhauser/ 
• Lori Santoli: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lori-santoli-csp/ 

This episode kicks off Facility Rockstars' six-week series spotlighting EHS professionals, covering safety culture, regulations, inspection prep, and operational excellence.

Pete Susca opens the series with 46 years of experience turning safety from a cost center into a business driver. As Principal of Operational Excellence, LLC (OPX Safety), Pete has spent his career, from 20 years in the fire service to consulting inside global manufacturing operations, proving that safety failures are rarely isolated incidents. They're symptoms of deeper, interconnected process problems that most organizations are too siloed to see.

Pete and Jay dig into what "process health" really means, why empowering the frontline worker (not the engineer) to own the process changes everything, and how safety leaders can stop asking for budget and start building a genuine business case. Pete also shares the leadership transformation process he uses to help executives close the gap between measuring risk and measuring results, plus a few stories from the field, including a timber-frame company that didn't realize its most dangerous task was also its most wasteful one.

Takeaways:

• Stop treating problems as isolated incidents. Safety, quality, and financial issues often share the same root causes — organizations just aren't structured to see the interconnectivity.
• Push ownership of the process down to the worker doing it. Supervisors are overloaded; empowering frontline employees to own quality, safety, and throughput takes the load off leadership and improves outcomes.
• Build the business case, don't ask for the budget. Frame safety improvements around value creation, not compliance spending — safety and profitability aren't competing priorities.
• Practice decision-making before it counts. Like the fire service and military, organizations should drill decision-making so people are prepared before a real crisis, not during one.
• Relationships shouldn't be optional — design for them. Interrelated goals and shared metrics force departments to succeed together instead of competing in silos.
• Understand the lag between risk and result. Leadership measures outcomes; safety manages probability. Bridging that gap requires a deliberate process to shift how leaders think about risk.
• Use safety as a litmus test for organizational health. How well decisions are made in safety often reveals how well decisions are made across the entire operation.

Quote of the Show:

•  "Good safety on a bad process is like putting really good paint on rust. It looks good for a while."

Links:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/peter-t-susca-4824432/ 
• Website: https://www.linkedin.com/company/opx-safety/ 
• Phone Number: 860-713-8050
• Email: [email protected] 

In this episode, Rich Martelli, Executive Director of Facility Services at Alexandria Real Estate Equities, joins Jay to talk about a career built on adaptability, trust, and hands-on problem-solving. Rich shares how moving across roles at organizations like Samuels and Associates, Normandy Real Estate Partners, and UG2 shaped his approach to facilities leadership, and how that same adaptability helped him and his team navigate one of their biggest challenges: delivering the 201 Brookline Ave Class A lab building in the middle of COVID-19, including a mid-project vendor shutdown and a compressed leasing timeline that had tenants moving in within days of occupancy being granted.

The conversation also digs into the ongoing debate between college and the trades. Rich, who started his career working alongside his father before earning his HVAC license, reflects on the talent gap he's seen develop over the past two decades and makes the case for more hands-on training opportunities for the next generation, including his own 16-year-old son. Along the way, Rich talks about what it takes to manage a campus full of vendors, why letting tenants focus on their own work while facilities handles the rest behind the scenes builds long-term trust, and what's kept him energized about the job after years in the industry.

Takeaways:

• Make adaptability a daily practice: Rich credits much of his career success to learning each team's culture and adjusting his approach rather than expecting one leadership style to work everywhere. Ask questions and observe before assuming how a new team or building operates.
• Build trust before you ask for patience: During the COVID-era construction of 201 Brookline Ave, consistent, proactive communication with tenants about ongoing disruptions kept relationships intact through years of delays.
• Handle friction so others don't have to: In specialized environments like Class A lab buildings, the best facilities teams absorb day-to-day disruptions behind the scenes so tenants can stay focused on their own work.
• Loop your team into hiring decisions: Rich relies on his existing staff's read on candidates — their day-to-day experience often reveals fit faster than a single interview can.
• Treat the college-vs-trades question as a personal path, not a universal answer: Encourage people, especially the next generation, to try hands-on work early and let curiosity guide the decision rather than convention.
• Close the training gap with real hands-on exposure: Classroom instruction matters, but pairing it with structured field experience and mentorship is what actually prepares people for the realities of the job.
• Invest in vendor relationships, but verify the work: Strong, long-term vendor partnerships pay off, but active oversight and engagement — not just a signed contract — keeps accountability high.

Quote of the Show:

• "We know our job, and they know their job, so that's always the goal: keep things strong and keep good relationships."

Links:

• Phone Number: 978-440-0083 
• Email: [email protected] 
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rich-martelli-965474209/ 
• Website: https://www.are.com/ 

For 117 episodes, Facility Rockstars has shared conversations with facility professionals, safety leaders, operators, and industry experts from across New England and beyond. But this week, we're doing something a little different.

In this special blooper reel episode, we're pulling back the curtain and sharing some of our favorite behind-the-scenes moments that never made it into the final cuts. From mispronounced names and forgotten intros to off-the-rails conversations, technical hiccups, and plenty of laughter, this episode highlights the authentic moments that happen when real people come together to have real conversations.

One of the things that makes Facility Rockstars special isn't just the expertise our guests bring to the table—it's their willingness to show up as themselves. These unscripted moments remind us that behind every title, credential, and leadership role is a person who doesn't take themselves too seriously.

So sit back, have a laugh, and enjoy a side of Facility Rockstars that usually ends up on the cutting room floor.

Takeaways:

• Authentic conversations are often more memorable than perfectly polished ones.
• Every great podcast episode includes plenty of moments listeners never hear.
• Leadership and expertise don't require perfection.
• The strongest professional relationships are often built through genuine human connection.
• Stepping outside your comfort zone is something guests and hosts experience alike.
• Humor plays an important role in building trust and camaraderie.
• Behind every successful episode is a team willing to laugh at themselves.

Links:

• Sal DeFranco
  • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/salvatoredefranco/ 
• Matt Anthony 
  • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matt-anthony13/ 
• Michael Rich
  • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-rich-cfm-00b06b19a/ 
• Don Bezek
  • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/donbezek/ 
• Colby Fillippelli
  • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/colby-fillippelli-cfm-8591097/ 
• Mike Albano