How to Move Your Safety Teams from Reactive Firefighters to Proactive Fire Marshals: Insights from Jesse Marano

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.