I lead the team responsible for Industrial Systems' environmental health and safety (EHS) programs at 14 sites in Mexico. Six years ago, Mexico established a program to recognize the country's safest plants as "STARs." Twelve of our facilities are now STARs, and the remaining two are working to achieve the same status.

Six Sigma fits naturally with EHS – better processes mean safer processes, which means less lost time, more productivity and more savings. We used it to redesign our manufacturing processes and reduced reportable accidents 50% in the first year.

I have tremendous support from the EHS professionals in all of our businesses. I'm proud to come to work and add to our record.

GE has about 1,000 EHS professionals worldwide. More than 46,000 GE employees work at more than 60 plants recognized by the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration's Voluntary Protection Program (VPP) as having outstanding health and safety practices and programs. GE has more than 19 plants in Mexico and 2 in Canada similarly recognized by equivalent governmental programs. GE has also recognized 15 other sites around the world as having outstanding programs under standards equivalent to those in the U.S.