Stephen Watson

Principal

Stephen advises leaders in the transport, construction and energy sectors on safety leadership, culture and governance to improve business performance.

Education

University of Birmingham
BEng (Hons), Chemical Engineering

Past Experience

Shell International Chemicals
Process Engineer

Stephen is a Principal at Arthur D. Little, based in our Cambridge office in the United Kingdom.

Since joining Arthur D. Little in 1998, Stephen has worked internationally across the transport, process and construction sectors, leading independent review of safety arrangements at board, business-unit and operational levels.

Recent projects have included a review and benchmarking of the corporate safety governance of an international transport operator and reviewing how an industrial services company put people to work at their clients’ sites.

Prior to joining Arthur D. Little, Stephen was employed for over seven years with Shell International Chemicals, involved in refinery and petrochemical process engineering, operations and process design. 

Stephen is a regular speaker at conferences on safety culture, accident investigation and safety leadership, and is an Honorary Lecturer at the University of Birmingham for teaching safety as part of the chemical engineering undergraduate degree program. 

Stephen volunteers for his local ambulance service, providing life-saving first aid in response to time-critical calls.

Recent Publications

Competence at the heart of a safe organization
Achieving consistently strong safety performance through a competent and capable workforce
Project crisis management
Energy companies are increasingly relying on extremely large-scale investment projects (megaprojects) to respond to the energy transformation, build capacity and replace depleting energy sources. Ever-increasing technical and commercial complexity, coupled with high political instability, economy and industry cycles, investor activism and tighter time constraints, make successful delivery of energy projects more challenging than ever.

Stephen is a Principal at Arthur D. Little, based in our Cambridge office in the United Kingdom.

Since joining Arthur D. Little in 1998, Stephen has worked internationally across the transport, process and construction sectors, leading independent review of safety arrangements at board, business-unit and operational levels.

Recent projects have included a review and benchmarking of the corporate safety governance of an international transport operator and reviewing how an industrial services company put people to work at their clients’ sites.

Prior to joining Arthur D. Little, Stephen was employed for over seven years with Shell International Chemicals, involved in refinery and petrochemical process engineering, operations and process design. 

Stephen is a regular speaker at conferences on safety culture, accident investigation and safety leadership, and is an Honorary Lecturer at the University of Birmingham for teaching safety as part of the chemical engineering undergraduate degree program. 

Stephen volunteers for his local ambulance service, providing life-saving first aid in response to time-critical calls.

Recent Publications

Competence at the heart of a safe organization
Achieving consistently strong safety performance through a competent and capable workforce
Project crisis management
Energy companies are increasingly relying on extremely large-scale investment projects (megaprojects) to respond to the energy transformation, build capacity and replace depleting energy sources. Ever-increasing technical and commercial complexity, coupled with high political instability, economy and industry cycles, investor activism and tighter time constraints, make successful delivery of energy projects more challenging than ever.

More About Stephen
  • University of Birmingham
    BEng (Hons), Chemical Engineering
  • Shell International Chemicals
    Process Engineer