#59 - Angelo Spingardi - Safety Has No Finish Line: 17 Years Running Safety at Saipem

Angelo Spingardi runs HSEQ — health, safety, environment and quality — across Saipem's 118 operational sites worldwide, from offshore platforms to construction sites across the energy transition. He's been inside the company for 17 years, starting as an environmental engineer before being embedded into Saipem's safety functions.In this episode he shared the personal loss that shaped his career, the leadership question that reframes how you investigate every accident, and the story behind Fail Safe — the film Saipem built to make human performance principles real on the ground.We also get into why vulnerability — not authority — is what actually gets people to admit their mistakes, why "safety is a consequence, not a target," and how Angelo has gone 17 years without ever having to argue for a safety budget.Timestamps00:00 — Cold open: why empathy is the foundation of safety leadership01:47 — Trust, empathy, communication: anchoring 17 years in HSEQ03:09 — From environmental engineer to Group Director HSEQ — the accidental path into safety04:25 — The personal loss that made safety personal: losing a friend at work06:25 — Earning trust vs. imposing procedure: how to get a room to actually listen09:55 — "Safety is a race without a finish line" — his CEO's metaphor10:29 — Do leaders really see safety as an investment, or still as a cost center?12:45 — The reframe: safety is a consequence, not a target14:35 — 17 years, zero arguments about a safety budget18:15 — The leadership accountability reframe: step back a week, a month, a year20:39 — Inside "Fail Safe": how Saipem's near-miss reconstruction film was born22:44 — Benchmarking against civil aviation and air traffic control24:03 — Why storytelling and film beat slides and procedures25:53 — What "Fail Safe" really means: humans err, systems must catch it26:46 — Vulnerability as a leadership skill: "I screwed up"29:11 — The "macho man" problem in construction, and why psychological safety is hard-won30:02 — Playing the film for 55 distracted people — and watching the room go silent31:24 — What makes a human-performance program actually work, beyond the video34:05 — Staying grounded: how Angelo avoids burnout after 17 years running safety36:00 — CloseAngelo Spingardi is Group Director HSEQ at Saipem, architect of the company's 2024–27 Safety Strategic Plan. In 2024, Saipem's TRIFR came in at 0.34 against a 0.41 target.Send us a message! If you like this podcast episode, subscribe here and follow us on LinkedIn for the latest from our HSE community and guests. Connect with our CEO and host, Mousa, today to stay updated on Safety Heroes, Pixaera, and more. Do you want to be a guest on Safety Heroes, or know someone who would be a great fit? We’d love to hear from you. Send us a message on LinkedIn or email [email protected].