Key Takeaways From the London EHSxTech Meeting
As organizations navigate an increasingly complex business environment, Environmental, Health, and Safety (EHS) professionals play a critical role in risk management and operational resilience. The February 2025 EMEA London EHSxTech meeting, highlighted essential strategies for positioning EHS as a key contributor to business productivity and resilience. Discussions centered around influencing leadership, demonstrating business value, and leveraging AI for safety advancements. Below are more details on the key themes and takeaways from the presentations and discussions.
1. EHS: A Strategic Partner in Crisis Management
By Eithne Clinton, Google EMEA EHS Lead
In today's volatile landscape, with challenges ranging from geopolitical instability and civil unrest to the increasing impact of severe weather events, crisis management and preparedness are more important than ever. Eithne emphasized the critical role of EHS in this context. Google's Crisis Management Framework, encompassing preparation, response, and recovery, was detailed, highlighting EHS's vital contributions at each stage. This includes proactive risk assessment and planning before a crisis, effective communication during, and thorough recovery, including conducting thorough post-crisis reviews, afterward. Preparedness for events like CBRNE incidents, through programs such as Shelter-in-Place, was also discussed.
Key takeaways underscore that EHS is a vital partner in supporting business crisis management. Proactive planning is paramount, and continuous improvement through collaboration and training is crucial. Ultimately, EHS serves as a trusted advisor in navigating crises, solidifying our position at the leadership table in the post-COVID era.
2. Influencing Without Authority
Facilitated Discussion
EHS professionals often need to drive internal change without having direct authority. The key to influencing leadership and stakeholders lies in strategic engagement, financial justification, and personalizing risks.
Effective Strategies for Influence
Takeaway: By linking EHS initiatives to business risk, employee well-being, and legal compliance, professionals can drive change even without direct authority.
3. EHS in the Age of AI
Presented by Karl Huntzicker, Salesforce
As AI continues to shape industries, EHS leaders have an opportunity to integrate new technologies for better risk management, compliance, and employee well-being.
'As EHS professionals we need to steer how AI will be used in the field, the future is what we make it' – Karl Huntzicker, Salesforce.
AI's Role in EHS Management
At the end of the day, it's important to remember 'it's not AI replacing humans, it's humans using AI.' By automating routine tasks, AI allows EHS professionals to focus on high-level decision-making and strategy.
Takeaway: We are in the early days of AI, and the future is bright. We expect AI to be a game-changer in EHS by reducing administrative burden, improving crisis response, and providing actionable insights into workplace safety risks.
4. Proactively Addressing Occupational Health (OH) for a Healthier Workforce
There is often a lack of understanding around Occupational Health (OH) in the tech industry. Think of approaching it through two perspectives: risk management and long-term strategy. Risk mitigation is taking care of the employees today, and the strategy component is how we improve things for tomorrow and provide that healthy working space. Proactive health management in the workplace is not just about compliance—it's about creating an environment where employees can thrive.
Best Practices in Occupational Health
Workforce Well-Being as a Competitive Advantage
Takeaway: A healthy workforce is a productive workforce. Organizations that invest in employee well-being position themselves as employers of choice while mitigating long-term business risks.
Final Thoughts: The Future of EHS
Across all discussions, a few central themes emerged:
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
23 minutes ago
- Yahoo
OpenAI Can Stop Pretending
OpenAI is a strange company for strange times. Valued at $300 billion—roughly the same as seven Fords or one and a half PepsiCos—the AI start-up has an era-defining product in ChatGPT and is racing to be the first to build superintelligent machines. The company is also, to the apparent frustration of its CEO Sam Altman, beholden to its nonprofit status. When OpenAI was founded in 2015, it was meant to be a research lab that would work toward the goal of AI that is 'safe' and 'benefits all of humanity.' There wasn't supposed to be any pressure—or desire, really—to make money. Later, in 2019, OpenAI created a for-profit subsidiary to better attract investors—the types of people who might otherwise turn to the less scrupulous corporations that dot Silicon Valley. But even then, that part of the organization was under the nonprofit side's control. At the time, it had released no consumer products and capped how much money its investors could make. Then came ChatGPT. OpenAI's leadership had intended for the bot to provide insight into how people would use AI without any particular hope for widespread adoption. But ChatGPT became a hit, kicking 'off a growth curve like nothing we have ever seen,' as Altman wrote in an essay this past January. The product was so alluring that the entire tech industry seemed to pivot overnight into an AI arms race. Now, two and a half years since the chatbot's release, Altman says some half a billion people use the program each week, and he is chasing that success with new features and products—for shopping, coding, health care, finance, and seemingly any other industry imaginable. OpenAI is behaving like a typical business, because its rivals are typical businesses, and massive ones at that: Google and Meta, among others. [Read: OpenAI's ambitions just became crystal clear] Now 2015 feels like a very long time ago, and the charitable origins have turned into a ball and chain for OpenAI. Last December, after facing concerns from potential investors that pouring money into the company wouldn't pay off because of the nonprofit mission and complicated governance structure, the organization announced plans to change that: OpenAI was seeking to transition to a for-profit. The company argued that this was necessary to meet the tremendous costs of building advanced AI models. A nonprofit arm would still exist, though it would separately pursue 'charitable initiatives'—and it would not have any say over the actions of the for-profit, which would convert into a public-benefit corporation, or PBC. Corporate backers appeared satisfied: In March, the Japanese firm Softbank conditioned billions of dollars in investments on OpenAI changing its structure. Resistance came as swiftly as the new funding. Elon Musk—a co-founder of OpenAI who has since created his own rival firm, xAI, and seems to take every opportunity to undermine Altman—wrote on X that OpenAI 'was funded as an open source, nonprofit, but has become a closed source, profit-maximizer.' He had already sued the company for abandoning its founding mission in favor of financial gain, and claimed that the December proposal was further proof. Many unlikely allies emerged soon after. Attorneys general in multiple states, nonprofit groups, former OpenAI employees, outside AI experts, economists, lawyers, and three Nobel laureates all have raised concerns about the pivot, even petitioning to submit briefs to Musk's lawsuit. OpenAI backtracked, announcing a new plan earlier this month that would have the nonprofit remain in charge. Steve Sharpe, a spokesperson for OpenAI, told me over email that the new proposed structure 'puts us on the best path to' build a technology 'that could become one of the most powerful and beneficial tools in human history.' (The Atlantic entered into a corporate partnership with OpenAI in 2024.) Yet OpenAI's pursuit of industry-wide dominance shows no real signs of having hit a roadblock. The company has a close relationship with the Trump administration and is leading perhaps the biggest AI infrastructure buildout in history. Just this month, OpenAI announced a partnership with the United Arab Emirates and an expansion into personal gadgets—a forthcoming 'family of devices' developed with Jony Ive, former chief design officer at Apple. For-profit or not, the future of AI still appears to be very much in Altman's hands. Why all the worry about corporate structure anyway? Governance, boardroom processes, legal arcana—these things are not what sci-fi dreams are made of. Yet those concerned with the societal dangers that generative AI, and thus OpenAI, pose feel these matters are of profound importance. The still more powerful artificial 'general' intelligence, or AGI, that OpenAI and its competitors are chasing could theoretically cause mass unemployment, worsen the spread of misinformation, and violate all sorts of privacy laws. In the highest-flung doomsday scenarios, the technology brings about civilizational collapse. Altman has expressed these concerns himself—and so OpenAI's 2019 structure, which gave the nonprofit final say over the for-profit's actions, was meant to guide the company toward building the technology responsibly instead of rushing to release new AI products, sell subscriptions, and stay ahead of competitors. 'OpenAI's nonprofit mission, together with the legal structures committing it to that mission, were a big part of my decision to join and remain at the company,' Jacob Hilton, a former OpenAI employee who contributed to ChatGPT, among other projects, told me. In April, Hilton and a number of his former colleagues, represented by the Harvard law professor Lawrence Lessig, wrote a letter to the court hearing Musk's lawsuit, arguing that a large part of OpenAI's success depended on its commitment to safety and the benefit of humanity. To renege on, or at least minimize, that mission was a betrayal. The concerns extend well beyond former employees. Geoffrey Hinton, a computer scientist at the University of Toronto who last year received a Nobel Prize for his AI research, told me that OpenAI's original structure would better help 'prevent a super intelligent AI from ever wanting to take over.' Hinton is one of the Nobel laureates who has publicly opposed the tech company's for-profit shift, alongside the economists Joseph Stiglitz and Oliver Hart. The three academics, joining a number of influential lawyers, economists, and AI experts, in addition to several former OpenAI employees, including Hilton, signed an open letter in April urging the attorneys general in Delaware and California—where the company's nonprofit was incorporated and where the company is headquartered, respectively—to closely investigate the December proposal. According to its most recent tax filing, OpenAI is intended to build AGI 'that safely benefits humanity, unconstrained by a need to generate financial return,' so disempowering the nonprofit seemed, to the signatories, self-evidently contradictory. Read: 'We're definitely going to build a bunker before we release AGI' In its initial proposal to transition to a for-profit, OpenAI still would have had some accountability as a public-benefit corporation: A PBC legally has to try to make profits for shareholders alongside pursuing a designated 'public benefit' (in this case, building 'safe' and 'beneficial' AI as outlined in OpenAI's founding mission). In its December announcement, OpenAI described the restructure as 'the next step in our mission.' But Michael Dorff, another signatory to the open letter and a law professor at UCLA who studies public-benefit corporations, explained to me that PBCs aren't necessarily an effective way to bring about public good. 'They are not great enforcement tools,' he said—they can 'nudge' a company toward a given cause but do not give regulators much authority over that commitment. (Anthropic and xAI, two of OpenAI's main competitors, are also public-benefit corporations.) OpenAI's proposed conversion also raised a whole other issue—a precedent for taking resources accrued under charitable intentions and repurposing them for profitable pursuits. And so yet another coalition, composed of nonprofits and advocacy groups, wrote its own petition for OpenAI's plans to be investigated, with the aim of preventing charitable organizations from being leveraged for financial gain in the future. Regulators, it turned out, were already watching. Three days after OpenAI's December announcement of the plans to revoke nonprofit oversight, Kathy Jennings, the attorney general of Delaware, notified the court presiding over Musk's lawsuit that her office was reviewing the proposed restructure to ensure that the corporation was fulfilling its charitable interest to build AI that benefits all of humanity. California's attorney general, Rob Bonta, was reviewing the restructure, as well. This ultimately led OpenAI to change plans. 'We made the decision for the nonprofit to stay in control after hearing from civic leaders and having discussions with the offices of the Attorneys General of California and Delaware,' Altman wrote in a letter to OpenAI employees earlier this month. The for-profit, meanwhile, will still transition to a PBC. The new plan is not yet a done deal: The offices of the attorneys general told me that they are reviewing the new proposal. Microsoft, OpenAI's closest corporate partner, has not yet agreed to the new structure. One could be forgiven for wondering what all the drama is for. Amid tension over OpenAI's corporate structure, the organization's corporate development hasn't so much as flinched. In just the past few weeks, the company has announced a new CEO of applications, someone to directly oversee and expand business operations; OpenAI for Countries, an initiative focused on building AI infrastructure around the world; and Codex, a powerful AI 'agent' that does coding tasks. To OpenAI, these endeavors legitimately contribute to benefiting humanity: building more and more useful AI tools; bringing those tools and the necessary infrastructure to run them to people around the world; drastically increasing the productivity of software engineers. No matter OpenAI's ultimate aims, in a race against Google and Meta, some commercial moves are necessary to stay ahead. And enriching OpenAI's investors and improving people's lives are not necessarily mutually exclusive. The greater issue is this: There is no universal definition for 'safe' or 'beneficial' AI. A chatbot might help doctors process paperwork faster and help a student float through high school without learning a thing; an AI research assistant could help climate scientists arrive at novel insights while also consuming huge amounts of water and fossil fuels. Whatever definition OpenAI applies will be largely determined by its board. Altman, in his May letter to employees, contended that OpenAI is on the best path 'to continue to make rapid, safe progress and to put great AI in the hands of everyone.' But everyone, in this case, has to trust OpenAI's definition of safe progress. The nonprofit has not always been the most effective check on the company. In 2023, the nonprofit board—which then and now had 'control' over the for-profit subsidiary—removed Altman from his position as CEO. But the company's employees revolted, and he was reinstated shortly thereafter with the support of Microsoft. In other words, 'control' on paper does not always amount to much in reality. Sharpe, the OpenAI spokesperson, said the nonprofit will be able to appoint and remove directors to OpenAI's separate for-profit board, but declined to clarify whether its board will be able to remove executives (such as the CEO). The company is 'continuing to work through the specific governance mandate in consultation with relevant stakeholders,' he said. Sharpe also told me that OpenAI will remove the cap on shareholder returns, which he said will satisfy the conditions for SoftBank's billions of dollars in investment. A top SoftBank executive has said 'nothing has really changed' with OpenAI's restructure, despite the nonprofit retaining control. If investors are now satisfied, the underlying legal structure is irrelevant. Marc Toberoff, a lawyer representing Musk in his lawsuit against OpenAI, wrote in a statement that 'SoftBank pulled back the curtain on OpenAI's corporate theater and said the quiet part out loud. OpenAI's recent 'restructuring' proposal is nothing but window dressing.' Lessig, the lawyer who represented the former OpenAI employees, told me that 'it's outrageous that we are allowing the development of this potentially catastrophic technology with nobody at any level doing any effective oversight of it.' Two years ago, Altman, in Senate testimony, seemed to agree with that notion: He told lawmakers that 'regulatory intervention by governments will be critical to mitigate the risks' of powerful AI. But earlier this month, only a few days after writing to his employees and investors that 'as AI accelerates, our commitment to safety grows stronger,' he told the Senate something else: Too much regulation would be 'disastrous' for America's AI industry. Perhaps—but it might also be in the best interests of humanity. Article originally published at The Atlantic
Yahoo
26 minutes ago
- Yahoo
What it's like watching your company be acquired for $8 billion—20 years after leaving
In 2004, after cofounding and leading data management company Informatica for 12 years, Gaurav Dhillon stepped away from the company for good. This week, now roughly 20 years later, Informatica was acquired by Salesforce in an $8 billion deal. 'It's deeply satisfying,' said Dhillon. 'When you look back at it and now see all these people on LinkedIn who have Informatica skills, it gives me a thrill—even though [my current company] SnapLogic is a competitor now. There's a certain amount of sibling rivalry, where you have an older sibling and a younger sibling, and you can never be older than your older brother. But you can provide interesting, new products and sometimes be more successful.' Informatica's last two decades have been complicated. Started in 1993 and going public in 1999, Informatica was a Y2K darling that by the mid-2000s was struggling to find its future. Dhillon left over strategic disagreements with the board, believing Informatica's technology was falling behind, especially amid the shift to cloud-based solutions. After walking away in 2004, he founded competitor SnapLogic in 2006. Meanwhile, Informatica had a string of owners. In 2015, Permira and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board bought Informatica for about $5.3 billion, and then the company went public again in 2021. There were rumors around a possible Salesforce acquisition last year that crystallized into this week, when Informatica became the latest purchase in Salesforce's string of deals. (Earlier this month, Salesforce announced plans to acquire There's tension in how Dhillon feels about the subject—gratitide for the runaway early success that shaped his life, and a nagging sense that things could have turned out differently. 'On one hand, we have this $8 billion outcome that's satisfying,' said Dhillon, who has no stake left in Informatica. 'On the other hand, who's buying who, right? I mean, I was one of Marc [Benioff's] first public company customers when he was starting Salesforce back in the day. So, you really have to continually double down on market opportunities to go forward. And this is what Informatica stopped doing that later led to the private equity years.' Dhillon's SnapLogic—whose backers over the years include Andreessen Horowitz, Floodgate, and Sixth Street Growth—is fashioned as a direct competitor to Informatica. (On its website, there's copy that reads: 'We left Informatica. You can, too.' The company raised its most recent funding round of $165 million in 2021 at a $1 billion valuation.) A lesson Dhillon brought to SnapLogic: Continuous innovation is essential. 'If you use the filter of 'We'll for sure make money in this fiscal year' to say yes or no to projects, you're going to run out of innovation,' he said. 'It's only a matter of time.' Ultimately, Dhillon told Fortune that he doesn't regret leaving Informatica behind. 'If you're graced with some success early in life, you have choice,' he said. 'And when we have choice, we have to engage passionately with big problems.' Sometimes, said Dhillon, a clean break is all you need. He thinks back to that point of no return, 20 years ago. 'We had recruited an Oracle executive on the board,' said Dhillon. 'And he said, 'Gaurav, make a clean break. It's probably the most difficult thing you can do for a while. But it's the best thing you can do, instead of hanging around as chairman. If they're going to do a clean reset and start to cash cow the business, let them do it.' And I'd worked 12 years of Sundays—I was ready to take a break.' Dhillon did, taking a year off learning Spanish at a university in Buenos Aires. And then he started over. See you Monday, Allie GarfinkleX: @agarfinksEmail: a deal for the Term Sheet newsletter here. Nina Ajemian curated the deals section of today's newsletter. Subscribe here. This story was originally featured on Sign in to access your portfolio
Associated Press
30 minutes ago
- Associated Press
Faruqi & Faruqi Reminds DoubleVerify Investors of the Pending Class Action Lawsuit with a Lead Plaintiff Deadline of July 21, 2025
Faruqi & Faruqi, LLP Securities Litigation Partner James (Josh) Wilson Encourages Investors Who Suffered Losses Exceeding $75,000 In DoubleVerify To Contact Him Directly To Discuss Their Options If you suffered losses exceeding $75,000 in DoubleVerify between November 10, 2023 and February 27, 2025 and would like to discuss your legal rights, call Faruqi & Faruqi partner Josh Wilson directly at 877-247-4292 or 212-983-9330 (Ext. 1310). [You may also click here for additional information] New York, New York--(Newsfile Corp. - May 30, 2025) - Faruqi & Faruqi, LLP, a leading national securities law firm, is investigating potential claims against DoubleVerify Holdings, Inc. ('DoubleVerify' or the 'Company') (NYSE: DV) and reminds investors of the July 21, 2025 deadline to seek the role of lead plaintiff in a federal securities class action that has been filed against the Company. [ This image cannot be displayed. Please visit the source: ] Faruqi & Faruqi is a leading national securities law firm with offices in New York, Pennsylvania, California and Georgia. The firm has recovered hundreds of millions of dollars for investors since its founding in 1995. See As detailed below, the complaint alleges that the Company and its executives violated federal securities laws by making false and/or misleading statements and/or failing to disclose that: (a) DoubleVerify's customers were shifting their ad spending from open exchanges to closed platforms, where the Company's technological capabilities were limited and competed directly with native tools provided by platforms like Meta Platforms and Amazon; (b) DoubleVerify's ability to monetize on Activation Services, the Company's high-margin advertising optimization services segment, was limited because the development of its technology for closed platforms was significantly more expensive and time-consuming than disclosed to investors; (c) DoubleVerify's Activation Services in connection with certain closed platforms would take several years to monetize; (d) DoubleVerify's competitors were better positioned to incorporate AI into their offerings on closed platforms, which impaired DoubleVerify's ability to compete effectively and adversely impacted the Company's profits; (e) DoubleVerify systematically overbilled its customers for ad impressions served to declared bots operating out of known data center server farms; (f) DoubleVerify's risk disclosures were materially false and misleading because they characterized adverse facts that had already materialized as mere possibilities; and (g) as a result of the foregoing, Defendants' positive statements about the Company's business, operations, and prospects were materially false and/or misleading or lacked a reasonable basis. The complaint alleges that the truth was revealed on February 27, 2025, when DoubleVerify reported lower-than-expected fourth quarter 2024 sales and earnings due in part to reduced customer spending and the suspension of DoubleVerify services by a large customer. Defendants also disclosed that the shift of ad dollars from open exchanges to closed platforms was negatively impacting the Company. On this news, DoubleVerify's stock price dropped $7.83 per share, or 36%, from a closing price of $21.73 on February 27, 2025, to a closing price of $13.90 on February 28, 2025. The court-appointed lead plaintiff is the investor with the largest financial interest in the relief sought by the class who is adequate and typical of class members who directs and oversees the litigation on behalf of the putative class. Any member of the putative class may move the Court to serve as lead plaintiff through counsel of their choice, or may choose to do nothing and remain an absent class member. Your ability to share in any recovery is not affected by the decision to serve as a lead plaintiff or not. Faruqi & Faruqi, LLP also encourages anyone with information regarding DoubleVerify's conduct to contact the firm, including whistleblowers, former employees, shareholders and others. To learn more about the DoubleVerify Holdings, Inc. class action, go to or call Faruqi & Faruqi partner Josh Wilson directly at 877-247-4292 or 212-983-9330 (Ext. 1310). Follow us for updates on LinkedIn, on X, or on Facebook. Attorney Advertising. The law firm responsible for this advertisement is Faruqi & Faruqi, LLP ( ). Prior results do not guarantee or predict a similar outcome with respect to any future matter. We welcome the opportunity to discuss your particular case. All communications will be treated in a confidential manner. To view the source version of this press release, please visit
