The Middle East expert wins US Safety Professional of the Year award

In a glittering function held at Al Hashmi convention center at Radisson SAS hotel last week, Mr. Hussain Ismail, Chairman and Managing Director of Kuwait Petroleum International and Mr. Chris Patton, the President of American Society of Safety Engineers presented the award to Mr. Ritwik.

Ujwal Ritwik is engaged in the professional since the past 32 years, environmental management and process safety management are some of the areas he is especially know for.

As the Senior Specialist in HSE Mr. Ritwik is the highest credentialed professional in Kuwait Petroleum Corporation in the field as per their recently introduced Technical Professional Ladder credentialing program.

He has won several awards within and outside his company. More recently,in 2007, he won Institute of Professional Environmental Practice (IPEP) Annual Award for International Collaboration and Cooperation in the field of environment. Since the past 20 years Mr. Ritwik works for Kuwait Petroleum Company; his supportive role in keeping the refinery fire station manned, during the Iraqi occupation in 1990, is vividly remembered by his superiors and colleagues.

While presenting the highest award of the region Chris Patton read the citation - On behalf of myself, Awards and Honors Chairperson Mary Winkler, and the nearly 3,000 members of Region VI, it is my pleasure to recognize Mr. Ujwal Ritwik as the Safety Professional of the Year. As you know, Kuwait is a new addition to the Region VI family; however, in the short time since they have been a part of this Region, the Chapter has made its mark.

Ujwal Ritwik has been a big part of that success. As one of the founding members of the Chapter, it's first President, and the organizer of numerous Chapter Conferences, his leadership has helped to take this entity from good to great. In the professional community, Ujwal's experience and knowledge are a resource from which many other professionals seek information and advice.

As the Regional Vice President that gets to work with your Chapter, I consider it an honor and privilege to be associated with groups such as yours and professionals such as Ujwal. Please accept my heartfelt gratitude for the work that you do in protecting people, property, and the environment.

Mr. Hussain Ismail too spoke highly of the contributions of Ujwal Ritwik to the company and Kuwait. He recounted the time he worked with Ritwik while at KNPC and how impressed he has been with Ritwik's performance both at work and as a volunteer outside the work. Ritwik's work to develop the local young professionals and strengthen local expertise have been specially highlighted.

He is the founder president of the local chapter of American Society of Safety Engineers and has also presided five International conferences on HSE in Kuwait.

Ritwik, has contributed significantly to the establishment of environment management system in his company and Kuwait as such. His work, both in the Middle East and overseas, has involved projects ranging from building process safety capabilities in high hazard industry and environmental studies.

Lauding Ritwik's role as a change agent Mr. Tareq Al-Aslawi, President of the Kuwait Chapter of ASSE, congratulated him for the achievement.

"He is the most well deserved recipient of this award. Such dedicated and hardworking people are rare, development of young engineers is always in his mind. He has made all of us in Kuwait proud," said Tareq.

While receiving the SPY award Mr. Ritwik thanked all his fellow workers and dedicated the award to 'all those faceless and unknown HSE engineers who keep working day and night to protect people, property and environment'. A 300 strong gathering attending the award function gave a standing ovation to Mr. Ritwik.