At 22, Steve Howe was nearly killed on a B.C. logging site when an excavator bucket struck him through the abdomen and dragged him. Recovery gave him something most safety pros never get: a lived, permanent understanding of what’s at stake. Today, as VP of Health & Safety at Emil Anderson Group, he’s turned that experience into a culture shift. People don’t follow Steve because they have to. They follow him because he’s real, he listens, and he makes safety personal. Since joining in 2019, he’s built a high-performing safety team and pushed the company from compliance to commitment. One of his signature moves is deceptively simple: “Why I Work Safe” stickers — family photos, pets, passions — placed on hard hats and gear as a daily reminder of the “why.” Voters say that approach has helped reduce incident frequency and severity while strengthening near-miss learning and Stop Work Authority on site.