Company News - Archive
December 2013
convergence wins an interesting environmental audit that is focused on compliance with South Korea's Toxic Substances Control Law. The audit involves the Korea business office and manufacturing facilities for a Fortune 500 American multinational diversified science and technology company.
convergence wins a large environmental, health and safety (EHS) compliance audit contract with a major American multinational pharmaceutical company. Beginning immediately into the new year and continuing throughout 2014, the audits span the globe. They start at a facility in Southern California and move on to facilities in South America, Europe, Middle East and Asia. The audits involve manufacturing operations as well as warehousing and commercial offices.convergence describes its relationship with this client as long and valued - going back to 2008.
Continuing its depth in supporting pharmaceutical companies, convergence is awarded the 2014 EHS global audit contract for the Pharmaceutical division of a Swiss multinational company. This isconvergence's second year collaborating with this Client.
November 2013
We are proud to announce that Alan Gallacher, convergence Principal and Director, has been invited to the UK Houses Of Parliament (by the office of Joan Walley MP (Chair of the Environmental Audit Select Committee)) to attend a November lunch meeting in London for key business leaders in the environmental field.
October 2013
The Conflict Minerals Interest Group of the Auditing Roundtable, completed its final draft guidance document intended to provide Auditing Roundtable members, auditors and other interested parties, with basic guidance on auditing a Conflict Minerals Report (CMR) according to US Government Accountability Office Government Auditing Standards. The guidance document awaits Auditing Roundtable Board approval before it will be released to the public. Cindy Chiles, Founder and President of convergence, actively participates in this group and was part of the review team.
Three key members of the convergence management team attended the fall national meeting of the Auditing Roundtable in New Orleans, Louisiana.
September 2013
Multinational real estate and facilities specialist, Cushman & Wakefield, have awarded convergence another project in Europe – to undertake Display Screen Equipment (DSE) risk assessments of their client's offices in Athens, Greece.
Through our US consulting partner TRC, convergence performed environmental, health and safety and security audits at four glass production facilities located in Japan and throughout Mexico.
August 2013
Cindy Chiles, President of convergence consulting LLC, tells Brinda Sen, Senior Director of Advisory Services for Sustainability Roundtable, Inc., when recently interviewed on environmental health and safety software (e.g. task management, workflow, compliance management, compliance knowledgebase, etc.):
"In my opinion, based on my years of experience in EHS consulting and the development of international support tools, the keys to identifying powerful and useful EHS software are:
- Simplicity. I use the two click test to determine if software is simple. Can you get to the place you want in the system in two clicks?
- Intuitive. For me intuitive is defined as - requiring no more than 15 minutes to train someone to use the main functions of the system.
- Flexibility. The system should be highly configurable in contrast to requiring programming for all changes. For example choosing different labels for a data field, or changing color coding for ratings, or changing icon images, etc. should be a simple configuration change versus an expensive program change.
- Relevant EHS data. The system should be loaded with EHS data that is specifically relevant to your industry and operations; you do not want to weed through unnecessary information.
If I were a buyer these are the features I would be looking for."
"convergence, teamed with Optial, used these key features as its mantra when developing its Country Compliance Tools for offices and retail operations."
July 2013
convergence released updates to several of our country legal registers for an office setting and retail operations including Australia; Belgium; Brazil; Beijing; Shanghai; Colombia; Germany; Japan; Korea; Mexico; Netherlands; Poland; Singapore; South Africa; Spain; Sweden; Switzerland; Taiwan; Turkey; UK; Austria; India; Indonesia; Philippines; and Thailand. For more information on our EHS Country Compliance Tools please click here.
June 2013
A relatively new client, Actavis Pharmaceutical (recently merged with Watson Pharmaceuticals), has awarded convergence EHS audits of their facilities located in Brazil, Bulgaria, Indonesia and the United Kingdom.
May 2013
convergence supports two new clients with Risk Assessment projects; i) European based luxury apparel company required support to undertake a Fire Risk Assessment at their new Asian Distribution Center in Hong Kong; ii) a global commercial real estate company sourced our support to review and revise their general H&S and Fire Risk Assessment at the Stockholm offices of their US multinational client.
April 2013
convergence has added Slovenia, Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates to our country legal registers for an office setting and retail operations, bringing the number of countries covered to over 45. We are also excited to announce that iconic British luxury apparel brand has joined our legal register consortium by purchasing 18 of the country legal registers. To request a demonstration of our EHS tools or to inquire about additional countries, please contact Stan Hickman at his email address shickman@cc-global.com.
March 2013
Another long standing pharmaceutical client, Abbott Laboratories, has awarded convergence EHS audits of their facilities in Australia, China (3 sites and cities), France, Japan, Portugal, Switzerland and the Republic of South Africa. One of convergence's other long term clients (a world-leader in the manufacture of DNA sequencing equipment) has added a tenth country (Brazil) to the list of locations we provide call-off aka outsourcing EHS consultancy support to their manufacturing, distribution, sales and administration facilities.
February 2013
Two of our long-term clients in the pharmaceutical (Eli Lilly) and transport (Bombardier) sectors have confirmed that convergence will continue to support their auditing and EHS consulting programs in 2013. These global audit programs planned for 2013 involve over 30 separate audits in 13 different countries.
January 2013
convergence released updates to several of our country legal registers for an office setting and retail stores including Canada (Toronto, Ontario), China (Beijing & Shanghai), Hong Kong, Finland, France, Italy, Israel, Malaysia and Russia. For more information on our EHS Country Compliance Tools please click here. Also in January, members of the convergence management team attended the Auditing Roundtable's national meeting in San Diego, California; and we were pleased to be one of the corporate sponsors of the event.
December 2012
A European headquartered healthcare and pharmaceutical multinational contracted convergence in October, 2012 to perform US audits. The successful completion of the audits lead to an opportunity to propose, and later awarded, their 2013 global audit program for the pharmaceutical division which includes audits in China, India, Switzerland and Germany (among others). We were also awarded audits in China, Sweden and Spain by Abbott Pharmaceuticals, a long running client of convergence. Andconvergence has supported another of our long term pharmaceutical clients, Merck, throughout 2012 by undertaking audits in 14 different countries including audits to the Pharmaceutical Supply Chain Initiative (PSCI) Standard in countries such a Japan and Israel.
October 2012
Welcome to our new website! We have added more interactive features and made it more streamlined and user-friendly. We hope you like it. In other news, convergence was awarded 2 audits in the US by a new client, Novartis. We are pleased to add them to our ever expanding pharmaceutical and medical devices client base. Lastly, Cindy (convergence President) and Alan (convergence Principal and Director) attended the Auditing Roundtable's international workshop in London, UK. Attending provided a great opportunity to meet with current associates and make new contacts in the market-place.
September 2012
Further to our News item of April 2011, convergence has added an additional 18 new countries to increase our offering of 41+ country legal registers for an office setting and retail stores. In addition to the four original multinational consortium member companies, another six companies have joined the consortium by purchasing registers. For more information on our EHS Tools please click here.
June 2012
convergence secures work over the past two months with four new clients; Texas Instruments, Chevron Philips Chemical Co., 3M and Johnson & Johnson (External Supply) to undertake EHS compliance and Process Safety Management audits throughout Europe and China.
March 2012
convergence wins further work in the Oil and Gas sector by providing auditors to support EHS audit programs for Hess Corp. in Spain, Australia and Indonesia; and for BP in Turkey.
February 2012
As has consistently been the case for the past 10 years, convergence receives confirmation from a variety of long-term clients that we will continue to support their auditing and EHS consulting programs in 2012. Such support is being provided to a number of Pharmaceutical companies, firms in the Medical Devices industry; Transport sector (train and boat manufacture), Electronics (hardware and software), Oil & Gas sector (E&P) and Retail. The global audit programs planned for 2012 involve over 80 separate audits in 25 different countries.
January 2012
In 2012 convergence continues to be awarded annual EHS global audit program support with our large and growing pharmaceutical and medical devices client base. Our reputation in the sector is well established and new clients come through “word of mouth” and references. Our pharmaceutical/medical devices clients include; Eli Lilly, Merck, Pfizer, Abbott, Astra Zeneca, Watson Pharmaceutical, Fenwal Blood Technologies, Allergan and Johnson & Johnson.
December 2011
convergence continues to support other medium sized USA engineering and consulting companies by providing them with global resources for their multinational clients. convergence, through its Global Alliance consultants, audited a wide variety of facilities for our domestic EHS consulting firms clients in Finland, China, Spain, France, Venezuela, Brazil, Turkey, UK, Germany, Thailand, Russia, Italy and Poland.
November 2011
convergence supports a new client (an Australian multinational internet domain service and web design company) by undertaking focused EHS audits and preparing site specific legal registers in six countries (South Africa, Germany, Sweden, Spain, UK and Netherlands).
September 2011
convergence initiates new business area by supporting international audits of potential Conflict Metals under the Electronic Industry Citizen Coalition (EICC) Extractives and Conflict Minerals Resources program. Initial metals and minerals traceability audits are undertaken in the USA, China and Japan; assessing smelters and recyclers for a variety of metals including tantalum, tin and gold.
July 2011
We are pleased to announce that Stan Hickman has joined convergence as Product Director. Stan has over 20 years of experience in the EHS field having led and participated in EHS and Process Safety Management audits in a dozen countries worldwide. Prior to joining convergence Stan led, for over 10 years, global EHS audits at a world-leading pharmaceutical research and manufacturing company. Click here to read more about Stan and the skills and experience he brings to our company.
June 2011
convergence's support in China continues to expand with the undertaking of two safety assessments at large construction sites building manufacturing facilities for a major US multinational client.
May 2011
convergence provides H&S auditors to support a Corporate EHS and Social audit of a very large Chinese facility that exclusively supplies electronics goods to a leading US brand. For the same client convergencealso undertakes EHS assessment at another Chinese supplier including conducting chemical exposure monitoring and industrial hygiene sampling.
April 2011
convergence rolls out its new program of country compliance tools for an office setting and retail stores. The tools are presented in five cumulative service levels; one building on the other. Our program begins with 23 countries; service levels 1 through 3 – Legal Register Basic to Custom with an applicability analysis; and four multinational member companies - two from the electronics sector, one from pharmaceutical and one from medical devices. The program will be expanding its country coverage and open for new members in early fall, 2011. We look forward to telling you more about this exciting initiative.
March 2011
convergence's working relationship with a US multinational in the electronics sector expands to include outsourced EHS management for the client's retail operations in Europe and Asia Pacific regions that involve eight countries and growing.
February 2011
In conjunction with a partner US consultancy, convergence in-country consultants support EHS auditing of a multinational manufacturer of automotive parts in Thailand, France, Germany, Russia, Italy and Poland.
January 2011
In 2011 convergence continues to be awarded with annual EHS global audit programs with clients in the pharmaceutical, manufacturing, electronics and service sectors. convergence has been supporting these repeat clients in all cases for more than five years and in most cases for ten years. These global audit programs involve over 70 separate audits in 25 different countries.
December 2010
Providing long-term EHS in-country support in three European countries for a rapidly expanding US manufacturer of specialty scientific equipment, the convergence consultants act as the 'EHS department' to ensure start-up and on-going operations meet legal and best practice expectations. In addition,convergence also designed and delivered for this client a web-enabled training program at the client's corporate headquarters in California on the topic of Global Product Stewardship and Producer Responsibility.
October 2010
convergence undertakes five EHS compliance audits at electronic supplier facilities for the EICC (Electronic Industry Citizenship Coalition) in both Malaysia and Singapore.
A new pharmaceutical client contracts convergence to undertake EHS audits at their US facilities.
August 2010
convergence wins new client in the rubber manufacturing sector to undertake EHS compliance audits at plants in Malaysia and Australia.
In conjunction with a partner US consultancy, convergence in-country consultants support EHS training to Coca Cola facilities in Russia.
For a US software client, convergence conducted a full review and update of the Global Corporate Standard for Disability Access; the revised Standard considered both EU and US requirements.
July 2010
EHS support to electronics suppliers in China continues with two large suppliers to a premium brand US multinational receiving internal audit support and subsequent development of corrective and preventative action plans to meet legal requirements as well as the corporate standards.
May 2010
convergence is pleased to announce its formal alliance with VECTRA International, an international network of corporate social responsibility (CSR) experts and headquartered in Brussels. The alliance between the two companies is synergistic in the truest sense of the word; and addresses the growing market demand for combined environmental, health and safety (EHS) and social assessments and the provision of capacity building support for operations and supply chains worldwide.
convergence has had a long standing business relationship with Pat Neyts, founder and Senior Advisor at VECTRA. Pat is a leader in the fields of labor and human rights. He is currently one of the few trainers for the International Finance Corporation on Performance Standard 2 (labor); Program Manager of the Validated Audit Program at Electronics Industry Citizenship Coalition (EICC) / Global Sustainability Initiative (GeSI); and capacity building consultant at the Business for Social Compliance Initiative (BSCI) - the association for over 400 retailers in Europe. He is formerly Vice President Worldwide Codes of Conduct for Levi Strauss & Company, and Vice President CSR at Timberland. convergence looks forward to continuing its successful collaboration with VECTRA.
April 2010
convergence rolls out its first formal newsletter to its Global Alliance (GOAL) partners. The newsletter is another tool convergence is using to strengthen and leverage its network of environmental, health and safety professionals around the world.
March 2010
The convergence EHS country protocol library grows with the 2009 completion of the Singapore protocol and recent release of the Libya protocol. All of our country protocols and legal registers are provided in the national language as well as English and updated every six months. See ehsprotocol. In the last few months convergence has also prepared client specific international support tools: the EHS Legal Registers for a blood technology company's operations in Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, France, Tunisia and Belgium; a Legal Register and Checklist of Chinese safety regulations and the technical quality standards associated with the construction of machines and equipment; the updating of a Netherlands environmental audit protocol for a medical device multinational; and prepared a research paper on the legal, social and EHS consequences of closing a large manufacturing plant in Thailand.
January 2010
convergence continues to expand its long term support of the pharmaceutical sector through its global audit services; in particular for Eli Lilly, Merck (recently merged with Schering-Plough), Pfizer (recently merged with Wyeth) Abbott Laboratories, and Fenwal Inc. These global audit programs involve over 25 different countries in year 2010 alone.
November 2009
convergence was selected as a preferred EHS management consultant to a premier brand microelectronics company for its EHS remediation supply chain program. convergence initiated this program with a Chinese supplier; that involved a compliance and management system assessment, followed by a full root cause analysis of all findings, and the formulation of corrective action and preventive action plans.
September 2009
convergence conducted EHS compliance and internal standard audits at the New Zealand and Finland operations for a Canadian manufacturer of jet-skis and skidoos. convergence was also involved in large complex audit of the same Canadian company's extensive aeronautics manufacturing operations in the United Kingdom.
June 2009
International programs were conducted by convergence in Thailand, Brazil and Germany to undertake due diligence audits in support of acquisitions and divestments of two multinational manufacturing clients. One of the clients subsequently commissioned convergence to prepare legal register and audit checklist against specific Chinese legislation.
April 2009
A large multinational train manufacturer chose convergence for the fifth consecutive year to conduct EHS audits at eleven of their operations in eight different countries.
March 2009
convergence continues its long standing business relationship with Eli Lilly & Company into 2009. We begin with audits (to EHS compliance, process safety management and internal standards) of their US and Puerto Rico operations and move around the world with them to Canada, United Kingdom, Italy, Egypt and Brazil. In addition, convergence will support Lilly in several focused audits involving radiation safety and FIFRA.
February 2009
convergence carries on its support of oil and gas operations by undertaking a seven day EHS audit (legal compliance and management system) of on-shore drilling and processing operations in Algeria for a US multinational exploration and production client. The audit involves assessing operations against Corporate management system standards; with a particular requirement for the convergence specialist auditor to assess health protection measures.
January 2009
convergence continues to expand its international EHS advice to the pharmaceutical sector by: signing an annual on-call contract with Lilly UK to provide specialist support to their GM laboratory activities; by contracting with Abbott Laboratories to conduct compliance audits for them in Canada, Japan and Singapore; and by conducting EHS compliance audits in India, The Netherlands and South Africa for the US pharmaceutical multinational Schering Plough.
We are pleased to announce our strategic partnership with Optial, a risk management software company.
December 2008
Sales of convergence's EHS country protocols continue to grow. Our Brazil and Germany protocol updates were released 12-31-08 and subsequently sold to an oil & gas field services company and large equipment manufacturer.
September 2008
convergence was actively engaged with its clients around the world this month: a two week audit of a confidential pharmaceutical campus in The Netherlands; an EHS due diligence audit in Norway for Oleon Oil Refinery; the preparation of an audit protocol and an audit of Merck's United Kingdom pharmaceutical facility near London; an EHS compliance and management system audit of Boston Scientific pharmaceutical facility in the Netherlands; preparation of a legal register and an environmental compliance audit at the Austrian manufacturing facility of a confidential client who produces high powered recreational vehicles (speed-boats, jet skis etc.); EHS and internal policy audits of a confidential client's train manufacturing and servicing facilities in France; EHS compliance audits at Eli Lilly's affiliates in Germany and France; and an EHS audit of Kimberly-Clark's campus in Nogales, Mexico.
August 2008
convergence continues to support the international pharmaceutical industry by providing auditors for Schering Plough's global audit program to undertake one week and two week EHS compliance audits at facilities in the Netherlands and in Scotland.
Cindy Chiles, convergence principal, along with her fellow Standards Committee members for the Board of Environmental, Health & Safety Auditor Certification (BEAC), RidgeHall, Jr. of Crowell & Moring, LLP, Frank Friedman of Frank B. Friedman & Associates, LLC and James Ball of Ashland Inc., completed the update of the 1999 Performance and Program Standards for the Professional Practice of Environmental, Health & Safety Auditing. The one year process entailed a complete rewrite of the standards and elevating them to a level of performance that reflects well accepted good practices. Numerous comments to the draft standards were considered and addressed. Ms. Chiles notes, "It was a daunting task, although well worth it. The new standards raise the performance bar to a level that the professional auditor can be proud." The new standards will be published later this year.
July 2008
convergence, with its partner RMT, was selected by an $18 billion health and hygiene multi-national company employing more than 55,000 people and operating in over 37 countries, as its global audit support. The 2008 audit program involves 23 EHS audits in 10 countries, including the USA.
convergence is pleased to announce the release of the United Kingdom EHS Legal Register – adding to our library already composed of Brazil, Egypt, Germany and Pakistan. Read more about our EHS Legal Registers and Country Protocols at ehsprotocol.com .
June 2008
convergence wins the contract to audit 14 office HQ facilities for a multinational US chemical company in 14 separate countries throughout Europe and South America. The audit scope is to assess compliance with local and national legislation.
May 2008
Alan Gallacher, convergence principal, joins the Eli Lilly audit team to assess their largest manufacturing facility outside of the USA at Strasbourg, France. Alan's role over the 5 day audit is to assess the entire integrated EHS management system against Corporate Standard and also to evaluate against relevant international management standards.
April 2008
convergence wins auditing work in both Australia and New Zealand to provide EHS auditors for a multinational Canadian based manufacturer of recreation vehicles (speed boats, skidoos, jet skis). The audits are scheduled for later in the summer and will include the preparation of EHS legislation registers and concise reports on aspects of legal compliance and good & bad management practice.
convergence is pleased to announce the release of the Germany EHS Legal Register – adding to our library already composed of Brazil, Egypt, and Pakistan.
March 2008
convergence was chosen for the 4th consecutive year to provide support to a European transportation multinational with their international auditing program. Throughout 2008 convergence will be supplying Global Alliance (GOAL) partner auditors from five European and Asian countries to provide the in-country legislative compliance support for audits of train manufacture, maintenance and servicing centers.
February 2008
Pleased to announce support of Eli Lilly's Global auditing program for 6th straight year. The 2008 schedule includes 25 sites in 11 different countries. Lilly has found that convergence's Global Alliance (GOAL) provides them with multiple in-country, senior-level auditors from which to choose every year. Multiple qualified auditors gives Lilly the opportunity for different audit styles, perspectives and diminishes the potential for conflict of interest.
January 2008
convergence is pleased to include Germany to our library of country protocols for sale. The protocol is provided in German as well as English and covers compliance to federal German legislation involving environmental, health and safety requirements. Our country protocol service is located atehsprotocol.com. The best introduction to our protocol service is to view the tutorial and then login to the system and work with a test protocol.
December 2007
convergence principal Alan Gallacher leads a team of GOAL specialist consultants to undertake a detailed review of operations of the worlds largest oil, gas and condensate field in Kazakhstan. The review assesses operations against World Bank requirements and a team of World Bank specialists accompanied theconvergence team during the 10 day review in country. The scope of the audit includes Environmental, Health & Safety and Social aspects, and convergence experts will prepare a detailed report for submission to the World Bank in Washington.
Cynthia Chiles, convergence principal, along with her colleagues on the BEAC Standards Board, Jim Ball with Ashland, Ridgway Hall with Crowell & Moring, and Frank Friedman with Frank B. Friedman & Associates, completed their extensive updating of the 1999 Performance and Program Standards for the Professional Practice of EHS Auditing, which is now out for comment. Please see www.beac.org to view or download the new draft standards.
November 2007
convergence's profile in supporting international pharmaceutical operations continues with the undertaking of three audits (Hungary, Denmark and Norway) of bio-pharma manufacturing facilities. convergence had not undertaken work for this client before and we are delighted to add the distinguished US based company to our client base. convergence used three of its GOAL partners – located in each of the three countries – to provide the requisite legal compliance auditing skills to the team undertaking the audits.
October 2007
convergence continues to support oil and gas operations in the far east by undertaking off-shore and on shore EHS audits (legal compliance and management system) for a US multinational exploration and production client. The audits were undertaken in both Malaysia and Thailand territories, involved assessing operations against both countries' legislative requirements and also Corporate management system standards.
September 2007
convergence principal Alan Gallacher is invited to deliver two presentations at a multi-national pharmaceutical client's four day internal Global EHS conference. The conference took place at the client's headquarters in the US and was attended by company staff from around the world. Alan was the only external speaker invited to present at the conference.
July 2007
convergence is pleased to announce the roll-out of its environmental, health and safety country audit protocol and regulatory guidance service known as ehsprotocol.com. Our service is provided through an innovative, user-friendly web portal developed by our partner Atmoterm Corp. and located atehsprotocol.com . The front page of the portal provides all the basic information about the service, including: the list of countries we offer, the distinguishing features of our service, the EHS subject scope of the protocols, as well as a "quick preview" of the site which is presented in a screen shot PowerPoint presentation. We invite you to review the portal and look forward to your feedback.
June 2007
convergence welcomes a diversified global manufacturer (US$7.7 billion net sales) as its newest client. The company manufactures a broad range of equipment for use in various industries, including construction, infrastructure, quarrying, surface mining, shipping, transportation, refining and utilities. convergencebegins its new engagement by providing the client with health and safety regulatory compliance guidance for Corporate and its operations in Germany, Mexico, Ireland and United Kingdom. We look forward to a long and valuable partnership.
May 2007
convergence was selected by a US based multinational Oil and Gas company to support its EHS audits for their operations in Malaysia and Thailand.
April 2007
convergence wins a contract with a confidential Fortune 10 multinational to prepare health and safety regulatory registers and legislation summaries for the client's office facilities located throughout Europe, Middle East and Africa.
March 2007
convergence wins, for the third year running, a competitive bid to support a multi-country, global audit program for a German based transportation sector multinational.
February 2007
convergence continues to expand its international EHS audit support to the pharmaceutical sector when it was selected by a new pharmaceutical client, Pfizer Inc. with US$ 48.5 billion in revenue, to provide audit services in 2007 at their operations in Turkey, Ireland, France and Australia.
January 2007
convergence finds efficiency in its new reorganization; and uses a portion of retained profit from 2006 to pay-off all outstanding debt in the company.
New Year's Message
The start of a New Year gives us a chance to reflect back on our company's progress towards being the leading provider of international EHS management services; and an opportunity to look forward to taking our next steps in our strategic plan.
Reflecting on 2006
convergence consulting LLC has had double digit growth each year since its inception in 2001, and 2006 was not any different with 22% growth in revenue and 18% growth in client base.
Another long-term trend is client loyalty or recidivism. To date all of our clients continue to invite us back to support them with their international EHS management issues. Eli Lilly and Company and Schering-Plough are prime examples. We are moving into our fifth consecutive year of providing worldwide EHS audit services for Lilly, and our fourth year for Schering.
Looking Forward to 2007
In 2007 convergence will be taking significant steps toward adding more value for our clients and growing our core business - international EHS management consulting.
Anne-Rose Bachmann will be leaving the company to focus on the German consulting market – her passion – rather than international projects and programs – which is our core business and our passion. We wish her well in her new business venture and we will remain close friends and business associates since she will be convergence's Global Alliance partner in Germany.
We will be adding administrative and technical staff that will bring us efficiency and more technical depth. We are excited with our prospects and look forward to announcing them in the near future.
In addition, convergence will also be rolling-out our web-based (international) country audit protocols and update service. This is an important milestone for the company because such a service requires considerable resources and integrity – which is the only way we would do it.
We at convergence want to wish you and your family a healthy and prosperous New Year.
Cynthia Chiles
President
convergence presents at the Institute of Internal Auditors conference in Palm Springs, California. Cynthia Chiles was asked to present on how to realize true performance improvement from your EHS management systems. Over 800 corporate Financial Directors and CFOs attended the three-day conference.
convergence consulting completes a challenging project for Merck in Pakistan. The project involved the development of a health and safety audit checklist for Pakistani occupational health and safety legislation at a federal and provincial level, and the conduct of a health and safety compliance audit and an assessment to Merck standards. This project was successfully completed by convergence's Global Alliance (GOAL) partner in Pakistan and the project management of Cynthia Chiles. Russ Del Tufo of Merck writes: “convergence custom matches the right person and specific expertise for each assignment. Projects are flawlessly managed and swiftly executed with excellent project management and strong communications and interpersonal skills."
December 2005
convergence successfully completes environmental legal registers specifically designed to cover offshore oil and gas development and production operations for seven countries. The registers provide detail of the individual environmental laws relevant to offshore operations and outline the responsibilities of both the contractor and the operator to ensure compliance with the regulations. The seven countries our client (confidential) required to be covered in the project were; Canada, Australia, Italy, Venezuela, Equatorial Guinea, Thailand and Vietnam. Alan Gallacher of convergence managed our Global Alliance (GOAL) partners in each of these seven countries to produce the registers that were well received by the client and we anticipate requests to prepare registers for other countries in due course.
October 2005
Alan Gallacher, principal of convergence consulting, leads environmental, safety and social audit of one of the world's largest gas fields in Kazakhstan. The annual audit is carried out against the International Finance Corporation (IFC) standards and Alan has been chosen to lead the audit on three occasions over the past three years. The nine-day on site audit utilizes both consultant and IFC specialists in environment
August 2005
convergence consulting LLC has acquired its extensive expertise in the pharmaceutical sector through years of planning and implementing 14001 management systems, and performing in-depth environmental, health, safety, and process safety management audits worldwide for numerous pharmaceutical companies including: Schering Plough, Eli Lilly and Company, Johnson & Johnson Baxter Oncology, Merck and Genentech.
July 2005
Cynthia Chiles, President of convergence consulting LLC, was elected to The Auditing Roundtable Board of Directors, the professional association for EHS auditors in the US. She will be serving a 2-year term that begins September 6, 2005 at the Arlington, VA national meeting. Cindy will also be chairing a panel at the meeting that focuses on the European Council's "precautionary principle". Congratulations Cindy.
June 2005
In May 2005 convergence consulting, along with the Dutch firm Royal Haskoning, hosted a seminar on the European Environmental Management System Scheme EMAS II (Eco- Management and Audit Scheme) for a Polish delegation that included their Ministry of Environment, their State Environmental Departments and their Center of Accreditation (PCA). The two-day seminar in Düsseldorf, Germany was funded by the European Union's Environmental Department, DG Environment.
As a new member of the EU, Poland is required to implement the European Regulation (EC 761/2001) which will form the legal framework for the voluntary participation in EMAS II. The Polish delegation gained valuable insight from the extensive experience and knowledge of the presented by the German speakers representing various accreditation, registration and verifying organizations, as well as from EMAS-registered organizations. With the aid of these groups, Poland will now more effectively be able to implement their own national EMAS program.
The seminar also included a site visit to the EMAS-registered chemical company Degussa in Herne, Germany. All participants remarked that the seminar was an excellent success, and genuinely look forward to continuing the dialogue between themselves and their new German partners.
convergence and Royal Haskoning with the Polish delegation at the EMAS registered Degussa chemical facility in Herne, Germany
April 2005
convergence consulting LLC is pleased to announce the selection of Alan Gallacher as a Principal of the company. With 15 years of experience in worldwide EHS project management; Alan's contribution toconvergence will be invaluable. He brings to convergence exceptional talent in the areas of EHS management, compliance auditing, management system development, due diligence, contaminated land investigation, risk assessment, waste minimization and training.
Prior to embarking on a career in EHS consulting, Mr. Gallacher was initially employed in the pharmaceutical industry and later managed a start-up recycling firm. As a consultant, he has worked with numerous multinational corporations, including Eli Lilly, Applied Materials, NCR, Motorola, Hughes Microelectronics, Shell, BP, British Gas/Eni/Lukoil, the Royal Navy and British Army and has performed EHS audits, developed management systems and trained organizations in the oil, gas, engineering, electronics, chemical, pharmaceutical, food & beverage, defense, and automotive industrial sectors.
Alan has a Bachelor of Science degree with honors in chemistry from St Andrews University in, Scotland and an MBA from Edinburgh Business School.
April 2005
convergence extends its business relationship with Optial Inc., a leading edge web-based, workflow system design company. Our two groups are developing a software platform to improve the management of EHS compliance and risk assessment. Click here for more information on Optial.
January 2005
New CyberRegstm International Suite enables multinational businesses to meet worldwide compliance initiatives. Citation Publishing, Inc., publisher of CyberRegstm, the fastest growing regulatory compliance library in the United States, has teamed up with convergence consulting LLC to deliver a single-portal global solution for multinational corporations concerned with worldwide environmental, safety & health and transportation (ESH&T) compliance.
The Citation international library will provide comprehensive, one-stop, online access to international laws, regulations, codes and standards and will ultimately cover all continents and many regions. Multinational businesses will have the ability to select the countries where they have a vested interest in maintaining ESH&T regulatory compliance. The international library will primarily be offered through the sales and distribution channels of the engineering division of the international technical and regulatory information provider IHS.
"Through CyberRegstm, Citation has demonstrated its commitment to providing the best compliance library solution available in the US marketplace. Now it is time to take that commitment to a global level,” said Kevin L. Spence, President, Citation Publishing. "One of the many values convergence brings is their business relationships with many of the world's leading ESH&T management and legal professionals. Through convergence, we can offer the assurance of this high-level international expertise to multinational customers."
Leveraging their extensive global resources and experts, convergence is developing worldwide data on laws and regulatory information for several countries on behalf of Citation. As added value, the law firm ofBaker & McKenzie will assist in verifying the completeness and accuracy of the list of laws and regulations identified for each country.
For each country produced, Citation will replicate all the functionality that has made CyberRegstm the fastest growing ESH&T regulatory compliance library in the US, including the single-click link to the IHS Specs and Standards Service. The initial countries to be released will include the three NAFTA countries (Canada, Mexico and the United States) and several countries in the European Union, as well as the European Council Directives in several languages. Several countries throughout Asia, Europe, the Pacific Rim and South America are also in planning.
"For multinational corporations, regulatory compliance is a global proposition", said Cynthia Chiles, President of convergence consulting. "These organizations are making daily decisions representing billions of dollars, and they are working hard to build compliance programs that meet the demands of the countries in which they operate. CyberRegstm is a proven tool in the most regulated country in the world — the United States. Its international counterpart is the next logical step in meeting the demand for true global compliance."
January 2005
With great pleasure, convergence announces its new business alliance with Environmental Safety Resource Pte. Ltd. (ESR) whose established operations focus on China and Southeast Asia. “ESR is our GOAL Regional Leader for China and East Asia”, says Cynthia Chiles, President of convergence consulting. “With ESR's support, convergence will be positioned to expand its existing role in China, Taiwan, Korea, Thailand, Myanmar, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia and the Philippines.”
ESR, an environmental, occupational health and safety consulting firm established over 10 years ago by Mr. T.C Yap and Ms. Agnes Di, specializes in auditing for regulatory compliance, ISO 14001, OHSAS 18001, integrated management systems and management system development throughout East Asia.
March 2004
Working closely with Stanley Work's management, convergence developed a new EHS management system strategy for Stanley Work's operations. The new system is based on sustainability principles and includes performance metrics to measure progress. convergence's partner, BRIDGES to Sustainability, supplied the metric system.
Kevin Nelson, The Stanley Works' Corporate EHS Director, credited convergence's management system strategy with:
- Providing Stanley with a new perspective on managing its EHS program - from assessing risk to ensuring sustainability,
- Delivering a greater company awareness of its environmental impacts through the cross departmental communications necessary in the data gathering process, and
- Identifying and reprioritizing Stanley's EHS aspects, thus providing the rationale to reallocate company resources to better manage the entire EHS program.
January 2004
convergence consulting LLC has acquired its extensive expertise in the pharmaceutical sector through years of planning and implementing 14001 management systems, and performing in-depth environmental, health, safety, and process safety management audits worldwide for numerous pharmaceutical companies including: Schering Plough, Eli Lilly and Company, Johnson & Johnson Baxter Oncology, Merck and Genentech.
July 2003
convergence consulting LLC is pleased to announce our teaming with BRIDGES to Sustainability, a 501(c)(3) educational non-profit organization, to conduct pilots with industry leaders to challenge and mature BridgeworksTM Metrics - a sustainability metrics software program that measures environmental and resource impacts and provides meaningful insight into the business consequences.
January 2003
convergence consulting LLC moves its US offices from Oakland to San Pedro, California