Christopher Headen

Vice President of Environment, Health & Safety at Republic Services

Speaker

Christopher Headen is Vice President of Environment, Health & Safety at Republic Services, where he leads enterprise environmental compliance, employee health and safety strategy across collections, recycling, post collections, polymer, and environmental services operations, with a strong focus on operational execution and performance. A chemical engineer and operations leader with more than 20 years of experience in high-risk, asset-intensive industries, Christopher has held senior leadership roles spanning operations, engineering, and global EHS and TE Connectivity and Cargill. He is known for translating strategy into disciplined field execution, aligning safety with P&L-driven operational performance, and developing leaders who own safety as a part of how the business runs. Christopher holds an Executive MBA from the Jack Welch Management Institute and is a Certified Process Safety Professional (CCPS). His work centers on strengthening EHS culture and operational discipline to reduce serious injury risk and build the foundation for sustained zero-harm performance.