The Canary Report: Safety & Risk Management
How to Move Your Safety Teams from Reactive Firefighters to Proactive Fire Marshals: Insights from Jesse Marano
September 3, 2026
One of the things I always say to my team is, how can we move from firefighters to proactive fire marshals?”Jesse Marano, Director of Global EHS at EVAPCO. Safety leadership isn’t about responding faster when something goes wrong; it’s about preventing the fire before it starts. Jesse Marano, Director of Global EHS at EVAPCO, explains how to shift safety teams from reactive firefighters into proactive fire marshals while building programs that can scale across global operations. In this episode of The Canary Report, host Michael Zalle sits down with Jesse to explore managing EHS across 28 facilities in 13 countries, balancing corporate standards with local autonomy, and getting real stakeholder buy-in. Jesse also shares why safety professionals need to speak the language of operations, demonstrate business value, and package their initiatives effectively. Because safety isn’t about citing regulations or creating more rules. It’s about building practical systems that prevent risk, strengthen operations, and help people work safely.

One of the things I always say to my team is, how can we move from firefighters to proactive fire marshals?” Jesse Marano, Director of Global EHS at EVAPCO. 

Safety leadership isn’t about responding faster when something goes wrong; it’s about preventing the fire before it starts. Jesse Marano, Director of Global EHS at EVAPCO, explains how to shift safety teams from reactive firefighters into proactive fire marshals while building programs that can scale across global operations.


In this episode of The Canary Report, host Michael Zalle sits down with Jesse to explore managing EHS across 28 facilities in 13 countries, balancing corporate standards with local autonomy, and getting real stakeholder buy-in. Jesse also shares why safety professionals need to speak the language of operations, demonstrate business value, and package their initiatives effectively. Because safety isn’t about citing regulations or creating more rules. It’s about building practical systems that prevent risk, strengthen operations, and help people work safely.



Here are some key discussion points from the episode:


Jesse Marano
is Director of Global EHS at EVAPCO, bringing nearly 20 years of experience in Environmental, Health, Safety & Sustainability across manufacturing industries, including biotech, aerospace, electrical distribution, construction materials, and industrial cooling. He has supported mission-critical markets spanning aerospace, defense, healthcare, and data centers. Jesse is a “stra-tactical” EHSS business partner who combines strategic thinking with hands-on execution, using risk-based decision-making, cross-functional collaboration, and servant leadership to build stronger safety and sustainability programs across complex global operations.

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