Former Industrial Scientific CEO Elected NSC Chairman
The company Kent McElhattan co-founded on Oct. 1 announced his election to succeed Joseph J. Ucciferro, who served as National Safety Council board chairman for the past three years. Mark P. Vergnano, executive vice president of DuPont, was elected to a two-year term as vice chairman.
Industrial Scientific Corp. announced Oct. 1 that Kent McElhattan, its chairman and co-founder, has been elected chairman of the National Safety Council's board of directors. McElhattan, who was elected to the board in 2007, succeeds Joseph J. Ucciferro, who served as National Safety Council board chairman for the past three years. NSC's 2010 Congress & Expo opens Monday in San Diego.
Mark P. Vergnano, executive vice president of DuPont, was elected to a two-year term as vice chairman of the board, replacing ExxonMobil's Michael Henderek. Vergnano began his career with DuPont in 1980 and now is responsible for six of the 13 DuPont businesses, including Building Innovations, Protection Technologies, Sustainable Solutions, Electronics & Communications, Chemicals & Fluoroproducts, and Titanium Technologies. He leads the company's Safety, Health and Environment, Sustainability, Marketing & Sales, and Communication functions.
Four new board members also were elected to serve two-year terms:
- James Andrew, senior partner and director of The Boston Consulting Group
- Linda Burtwistle, president of First Student
- Brendan Deely, president and CEO of L&W Supply Corp. and vice president of USG Corp.
- Abdul Rahman Jawahery, a chartered chemical engineer who is general manager of Gulf Petrochemical Industries Co.
"Due in large part to the commitment and tenacity of the National Safety Council, our world is a much safer place today than it was 100 years ago, or even 25 years ago," McElhattan said in the news release. "But we still have an enormous amount of work to do. I am delighted and humbled to have a leadership position within such a great national organization. I look forward to working with our president and CEO, Janet Froetscher, and her team.
"I am committed and passionate about the mission of the National Safety Council," he added. "Their work correlates exactly with that of Industrial Scientific, which is simply to eradicate accidental injury and death from the human experience, period."
He was president and CEO of Industrial Scientific from 1985 to 2010.