BrandSafway Forms Innovation Council to Explore New Ideas
BrandSafway, a leading provider of work access and specialized services to the global industrial commercial and infrastructure markets, has formed an innovation council to identify, develop and launch new forward-thinking ideas.
“We take our role as the industry’s leader in safety, engineering and innovation seriously,” said Bill Hayes, president and CEO of BrandSafway. “The BrandSafway Innovation Council will focus on harnessing internal creativity in the development of new processes and tools.”
BrandSafway has developed such products as the QuikDeck Suspended Access System, which creates a factory-floor-like platform in the air, reducing craft labor by as much as 35 percent or more, the company said, and BrandNet, which increases productivity on jobsites through access optimization.
“Our Innovation Council is developing a pipeline of similar, innovative solutions,” Hayes said. “They will focus on accelerating ideation, development and commercialization. By helping our customers improve safety and increase productivity, we can have a powerful, positive impact on our customers, their industries and the economy. The council is an important step in improving and accelerating innovation globally, while ultimately increasing the value we bring to our customer sites.”
The company named Vishnu Irigireddy, vice president of global engineering for SafeWorks, a BrandSafway company, as chair of the Innovation Council.
“The Innovation Council not only provides an opportunity for ideas to be heard and carefully considered; it’s a great way for our various divisions and departments to build off each other, and in the end come up with even better, safer and more productive solutions for our customers.
Irigireddy joined the SafeWorks leadership team in 2016, bringing more than 18 years of senior leadership experience in engineering and strategic growth. The council also includes leaders from throughout BrandSafway’s departments and divisions, including product line management, safety, business and operational leaders in BrandSafway’s industrial, commercial and infrastructure segments.
“Our people are our greatest asset,” said Hayes. “We have the most experienced team in the industry and the council will provide a forum to capture their ideas for improving safety and productivity for our customers.”
BrandSafway, based in Kennesaw, Ga., is No. 6 on the RER 100.
About the Author
Michael Roth
Editor
Michael Roth has covered the equipment rental industry full time for RER since 1989 and has served as the magazine’s editor in chief since 1994. He has nearly 30 years experience as a professional journalist. Roth has visited hundreds of rental centers and industry manufacturers, written hundreds of feature stories for RER and thousands of news stories for the magazine and its electronic newsletter RER Reports. Roth has interviewed leading executives for most of the industry’s largest rental companies and manufacturers as well as hundreds of smaller independent companies. He has visited with and reported on rental companies and manufacturers in Europe, Central America and Asia as well as Mexico, Canada and the United States. Roth was co-founder of RER Reports, the industry’s first weekly newsletter, which began as a fax newsletter in 1996, and later became an online newsletter. Roth has spoken at conventions sponsored by the American Rental Association, Associated Equipment Distributors, California Rental Association and other industry events and has spoken before industry groups in several countries. He lives and works in Los Angeles when he’s not traveling to cover industry events.