Commissioner Spotlight: William (Bill) Davis
July 2017—Recently elected to the NCCCO Commission as the public member representative, Bill Davis brings more than 40 years of experience in the construction and loss-control industries, much of it focused on risk management and crane safety. A Certified Safety Professional (CSP) since 1986, Bill currently works as a Senior Risk Engineering Consultant at the Zurich Services Corporation, where he specializes in cranes and rigging.
At Zurich, he provides property, casualty, and crane and rigging exposure identification and control, as well as construction property builders risk assessment and control. Other work includes crane safety program audits, field reviews of crane operations, loss investigation, and fielding many daily questions on crane and rigging issues.
Another of Bill’s major responsibilities at Zurich is training program development and delivery focused on cranes, rigging, heavy equipment, behavioral management, and management control systems, having delivered hundreds of training events throughout the U.S. and Canada. Although he spent many years training crane operators, in recent years he has been more focused on training non-operator crane personnel such as lift directors, riggers, and signalers.
Bill sees NCCCO as having contributed significantly to crane safety in the U.S. “NCCCO is exceptionally connected to legislative activities, construction trends, and safety needs related to crane activities. The volunteer Directors and Commissioners have remarkably varied backgrounds that allow the team to bring together a wide range of views and experience. Volunteers come from equipment manufacturers, labor, insurance companies, associations, government, consultants, end users, and other groups. The Commission balance is set so that all groups are well represented, with no group being a dominant player. The experience and collaboration of the team is remarkable.”
While the NCCCO Commission has representatives from many facets of the industry, Bill serves as the Commission’s lone “Public” member, so he doesn’t represent any one group. Instead, he provides a real-world view that observes, balances, and reports on the needs and opportunities to improve crane and rigging safety. Having worked with cranes for the greater part of his career, Bill has been familiar with NCCCO since its inception; he first participated on the Commission in 2008.
He says, “Without question, NCCCO is the world leader in crane operator certification. In response to requests from industry, it has grown its range of personnel certifications into other crane-related jobs, including riggers, signalpersons, crane inspectors, and lift directors. These certifications were badly needed, and each has resulted in a quantum leap in awareness and ability for crane-related safety training and management.”
When not working, Bill spends 10 to 15 hours a week volunteering with a large police department that is currently rated number one in the U.S. for law enforcement certification. He works in the traffic enforcement unit, handling traffic crashes, traffic direction, and disabled vehicles, as well as participating in new officer training activities. He finds this work is exceptionally rewarding in that it is far removed from his day job, helps the public, and is greatly appreciated by the police department. He has been married for 28 years and has two grown children.