SYDNEY — Conversations in the company lunchroom were the catalyst to kick-start succession planning at Safety Check Inspections Ltd.
The Sydney-based occupational health and safety training and consulting company is owned by Greg MacMillan. He started the business in August 2000, offering various training programs for companies and employees involved in the trades.
The courses range from first aid training and confined space rescue to its newest certified programs in Oil Sands Safety Association training for tradespeople working in Alberta.
It was in 2016 when MacMillan was approached by Frankie Fahey and Chris Angione about one day taking over the business. At the time, both employees were essentially freshmen at the company.
“We had meeting after meeting and before you know it, we had a deal in place,” said Angione, 41, who has a bachelor of education degree.
“We just didn’t know (the transition) would happen so soon.”
Angione taught mostly at the junior high level in the Cape Breton- Victoria Regional School Boardfor about 10 years when, still without a teachingcontract and tired of substitute teaching, hedecided a change in careers was what he needed. Four years ago, he took over the position of training manager at Safety Check.
Angione’s friend and former colleague on work stints in Alberta, Fahey, with two young boys back in New Victoria, soon came home to Cape Breton.
A position was open at Safety Check where Fahey’s wife, Jennifer Fahey, was the office manager.
Fahey, 35, was hired as the operations manager and, with more than 15 years of experience in the oil and gas industry as a red seal pipefitter, he became the on-site lead on training programs.
Fahey and Angione were able to secure a deal with MacMillan to purchase the company in August 2016. Since that time, Fahey has described it as a steady learning curve.
“There was a lot to it. There were no breaks. It was just go, go, go. There was a lot to take in, forsure,” he said.
Much of the work in the past 18 months has been focused on how the day-to-day operations run, as well as working on the human resources aspect of the job.
Both Angione and Fahey have their areas of strength. With Angione, he said training tradespeople is a world away from a junior high class, but he fully enjoys it. Fahey works more in the field in a hands-on capacity.
“I think it’s the perfect situation because we’re doing training — we have a B.Ed in myself to run the training and we have a red seal pipefitter. . .from the oil sands to do the on-site stuff,” said Angione, who lives in New Waterford with his wife and two children.
“We kind of hit the best of both worlds with it. Stepping on each other’s toes, that’s not even an issue right now.”
MacMillan is pleased with the progress that’s been made to date, and said the men have been running the operation for some time now.
Officially stepping back from Safety Check in August will give MacMillan, 57, time to concentrate on his other business interests.
“It’s very much a succession plan as opposed to a sale. The way we structured our deal was that it’s in my best interest, as well as Frankie and Chris, for them to be prosperous well into the future,” he said.
“I will remain and help them if needed but I don’t think they need my help anymore.”
