Coni Manders was a valuable contributor to Occidental Petroleum Corporation’s (OPC’s) health, environment and safety (HES) programs over the past 16 years.  She worked in compliance, due diligence, corporate social responsibility, and program development in a number of key areas, and led the redesign and implementation of OPC’s HES quality assurance and quality control (QA/QC) programs from 1997 through 2007.  QA/QC programs are a key element of strong HES programs in businesses of all sizes, operating anywhere in the world, whether they produce goods or services.  

In her capacity directing OPC’s HES QA/QC programs, Coni coordinated with our operating subsidiaries and reported to the Environmental, Health and Safety Committee of OPC’s Board of Directors (the Board Committee).  Coni was also a leader in the Auditing Roundtable, which she has served in a number of capacities, including as its past president.  Coni introduced and implemented a number of best practices in our HES QA/QC Programs, and she has educated and trained many professionals at our company and other companies in auditing and assessment.    

OPC retained Environmental Resources Management (ERM), a worldwide consulting firm, to conduct a thorough, three-year benchmark of our HES QA/QC Programs.  ERM issued the following opinion in 2001, which serves as a testament to Coni’s design and implementation:

“Environmental Resources Management has conducted an evaluation of the Health, Environment, Safety, Transportation, and Product Stewardship Audit Programs (the Programs) of Occidental Petroleum Corporation (OPC) and its wholly owned subsidiaries over a three-year period.... ERM has concluded that OPC’s Program and the Programs of OPC’s wholly owned subsidiaries satisfy or exceed the mandates of OPC’s HES Policies and Procedures, and the expectations of established HES audit criteria of governmental agencies and recognized non-governmental organizations. OPC’s Program, and the Programs of OPC’s subsidiaries as overviewed by OPC, provide competent, reliable and objective information to the management of Occidental Petroleum Corporation and its subsidiaries about the status of HES compliance and performance. Occidental Petroleum Corporation can rely on OPC’s Program and the Programs of its subsidiaries.

In ERM’s opinion, Occidental Petroleum Corporation has implemented an effective Health, Environment, Safety and Process Risk audit program that clearly ranks in the upper quartile of companies in the chemical manufacturing and oil & gas industries.”

Thanks to Coni’s thoughtful stewardship, we have maintained strong, vibrant HES QA/QC Programs on which our management and our Board Committee depend.

Coni Manders is a seasoned professional across the broad range of Environmental, Health and Safety practice from policy development to audit assessments of performance. She is unique in her ability to listen carefully and understand her clients, thus enabling her to recommend appropriate and practical courses of action to manage and reduce risk.

I have worked with Coni Manders for more than 15 years and she has consistently delivered world class advice in the field of Environmental Health and Safety.  If you need practical and professional advice in HES, ICON can provide what you need.

During the more than dozen years that I worked with Coni in the Health, Environment and Safety department of a major Fortune 500 corporation, I found her to be a knowledgeable and creative contributor to our efforts, which enabled Occidental Petroleum to implement an exceedingly strong HES program that achieved outstanding results.

What makes Coni such an effective instructor and consultant? She knows how to communicate complex technical and regulatory information so that students and clients not only understand that information but also how to use it.
Coni bridges the corporate gap between executive management and technical staff – she is effective in communicating environmental issues to corporate decision makers and directors while helping staff merge business factors with front-line technical and regulatory issues.

I have known Coni Manders for almost 20 years both as a client and a colleague. I have always been impressed with her unique blend of interpersonal, technical and management skills. As a veteran of the regulatory based environmental, health and safety business over the past 20 years ICON understands what your company must do to stay in compliance and also has the vision to guide your business to a sustainable future.
Whatever your EHS management consulting needs may be; risk management, compliance programs, training or strategic advisory support, ICON has the skill, integrity and business insight to assist you.

Coni is a strategic thinker; she sees the dimensions of management from a different view point than her peers.  She continually considers structural impediments that prevent the organization from fulfilling its mission.  When the situation is defined, she presents a vision to those around her and then facilitates solutions by drawing in key players to change and restructure the organization.  While she is the catalyst, in the end all players claim the success of the team.

Recently our company faced a very challenging situation as the New Jersey Department of Health declared that turf fields represented a potential health issue for children.  As a supplier of turf fields we needed to decide how to react to this announcement.  We engaged Coni Manders to help us formulate not only a short term response to this but the company policy that we would follow for the future.  Coni’s insights into how the public would react to these types of announcements and the types of approaches that had been successful and not so successful for other companies was invaluable for us as we formulated our path forward. I have collaborated with Coni in prior years in her leadership roles within the Auditing Rountable, Inc., and now as its Training Director, and have found her to be enthusiastic, practical, knowledgeable and insightful, and she has always had an eye to achieving objectives with minimum impact on the bottom line. 

Coni Manders and I worked together for 15 years with a major U.S. Oil & Gas and Chemical Manufacturing company. Coni is extremely knowledgeable in all phases of Industrial Environmental, Health and Safety Management. I have worked with her on many sensitive and complicated issues and in all cases she has been a great asset.

I work closely with Coni in the development and delivery the Auditing Roundtable's newly established Auditor Training Program. I have found her to be her to be extremely passionate about her work.  She is very dedicated to the project at hand and combines her expertise with her professionalism to develop products that exceed expectations. Coni is an excellent team player that will help you accomplish your goals.

It is my pleasure to recommend the services of Coni Manders.

I have worked and known Coni for over 15 years.  I worked with her closely as a board member of the Auditing Roundtable (AR) and most recently in my capacity as board member of our certification organization the Board of Environmental, Health and Safety Auditor Certification (BEAC).

Coni has served us as President of AR and played a critical role in creating BEAC to certify environmental, health and safety (EHS) auditors.  In her many years with the organization she has been a very strong contributor and a role model for many of us.  Coni spearheaded a successful complete reorganization of the AR to a structure which effectively delegated more decision making of the organization to the committee level.  This greatly helped streamline the management process of the board which freed the board members to think more strategically and proactively.  Her approach to the many challenges of AR included clear objectives, well-organized strategies, good benchmarking examples and a generally positive attitude to change.  We owe a tremendous debt of gratitude to Coni for many years of fine service to the EHS profession. 

I highly recommend the services of Coni Manders.  She is professional, efficient and has made key contributions in the field of environmental and safety management.
Sincerely,

I have known Coni Manders to be an incredibly bright, articulate and conscientious professional very committed to her field. She has a strong knowledge of environmental health and safety issues, risk management, corporate social responsibility and sustainability issues. Coni was passionate about environmental health and safety issues facing our society long before it became a burning issue in corporate America. She is an excellent communicator, a pleasure to work with and very talented in her field. I highly recommend her as a credible consultant.