Kirk Smith
Principal, Safety & HOP Practitioner Alkermes
Kirk started his EHS career in the U.S. Coast Guard on an ice breaking ship on Lake Michigan and has spent the last 20 plus years in a variety of EHS leadership roles in six different industries. Kirk eventually found his way home in the pharmaceutical industry nine years ago at Alkermes, a global biopharmaceutical company. He has a bachelor’s degree in management from Northern Kentucky University, a master’s degree in safety, security and emergency management from Eastern Kentucky University and is a Certified Safety Professional (CSP). Over the past several years he has found his passion and purpose in Human and Organizational Performance (HOP) and has been integrating HOP principals and operational learning tools into his organization ever since. Kirk is an avid outdoorsman, loves spending time with his family outdoors, traveling, and skiing in the winter months. Kirk lives with his wife Paula in Morrow, Ohio where together they are raising two children who share their love for the outdoors on their small, seven-acre hobby farm.
Seminars
Once viewed as low risk compared to small molecule production, bio sites are now operating 15K+ bioreactors, vast solvent systems, and steam infrastructure once unthinkable in biologics. And yet, many sites still fall outside of formal process safety rigor.
This panel tackles the growing disconnect between perceived and actual risk in modern biopharma, and how organisations are responding by applying process safety standards, KPIs, and culture to these “new old risks”.
- When is a biologics site no longer a “low risk” facility? Learn how to close the gap between infrastructure scale and safety oversight
- Applying PSM selectively: hazard-based vs blanket standards and how do different companies approach biopharma site PSM adoption?
- How KPIs mislead: lagging vs leading, and what’s actually useful, are we measuring the wrong things? Explore how other firms are redefining KPIs that reflect current realities, not just historical assumptions
- Identify which process safety elements are essential to modern biologics sites, even if you are not Seveso
As occupational health expands beyond physical safety to include mental well-being, inclusion, and work-life balance, cross-functional collaboration with Human Resources (HR) is becoming essential but these partnerships are not always easy or common:
- Why are traditional EHS-led occupational health models no longer enough?
- Shared ownership: who drives change: EHS, OH, or HR?
- Discussions regarding tools for data sharing and mutual accountability
Traditional occupational health systems often emphasise compliance, reporting, and error prevention. HOP (Human and Organisational Performance) helps organisations move away from what went wrong. In this presentation, EHS, occupational health, and operations leaders explore how HOP is reshaping workplace safety and health across labs, manufacturing, and corporate offices.
- How “right the first time” messaging conflicts with human performance principles
- Practical examples of moving from blame to learning in pharma environments
- Integrating HOP into incident investigations, near miss reporting, and occupational health programs
- How HOP can reduce stress and improve trust among multi-generational workforces
