GORDON PICKERING, MECHANICAL ENGINEER
Mr. Pickering holds a bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from Rochester Institute of Technology. He worked for 40 years at Berry Global (formerly Pliant Corporation, Mobil Chemical) a plastic manufacturing facility, in the following roles: Safety Engineer, Environmental Health Safety Manager, Process Engineer, Extrusion Department Manager and Facility Engineer. This experience has allowed him to acquire a comprehensive and unique background. Mr. Pickering was awarded three patents for his participation in mechanical design work in automating production processes and equipment. In his early career he completed training as a journeyman machinist.
Mr. Pickering most recently worked as the Safety Engineer for Berry Global. As the Safety Engineer and Environmental Health Safety Manager he worked closely with OSHA representatives as a safety outreach source for small companies.
Mr. Pickering maintained the safety policies and contingency plans for the facility, conducted accident investigations using root cause analysis, designed machine guards, provided safety training for new employees, developed and maintained annual compliance safety training programs, conducted OSHA style safety audits and maintained the 300 and 300A OSHA logs.
Mr. Pickering was trained and acknowledged by OSHA for conducting the OSHA 10 and 30 hour general industry safety training. He completed the requirements to maintain environmental compliance for annual air emissions reports, Title V report, Sara Tier II reporting, SPEDS permits (Discharge Monitoring reports), maintaining radioactive materials license along with leak testing requirements. He has also completed environmental compliance training in Resource Conservation Recovery Act (RCRA), Spill Prevention Control and Countermeasures (SPCC) and hazardous waste handling.
Key knowledge areas include but are not limited to machining, machine guarding, ladder usage and safety, fall protection, conveyor systems, OSHA requirements and interactions, mechanical failure analysis, heavy equipment failures and fire, diesel and gasoline engine failures, fire suppression systems (CO2 and sprinklers) and NFPA 70 Electrical Safety (Arc Flash).
Mr. Pickering’s private and personal pursuits have led him to enjoy and gain expertise in engine and vehicle restoration as well as the understanding of equipment fabrication and installation to maintain OSHA compliance giving him a balanced understanding of mechanical systems and their operation.
Forensic mechanical engineering with hands-on, real world experience in machining, mechanical design.