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January 27, 2025

Safety Professional of the Year

Brian Sorensen

Exxel Pacific

Sorensen

As the Director of Safety for Exxel Pacific, Sorensen manages the entire safety team, claims, and the corporate safety and health program. Through his influence, Exxel Pacific has achieved marked declines in incident rates, including severity rates and DART rates, further distinguishing Exxel as a market leader in safety. Since joining Exxel Pacific four years ago, he has grown the safety team and their capabilities to manage the company’s growth and expanding project portfolio. Sorensen’s focus and effort has resulted in Exxel winning three AGC Build Washington Awards for Safety Excellence and two Grand Awards.

These achievements are no small feat, considering Sorensen took on a program that had recently lost its well-respected safety director through a sudden passing. Sorensen quickly made it his mission to build relationships and trust with all teammates. He took action to hire versatile team members from diverse backgrounds, including past L&I inspectors, degreed safety professionals and the Certified Safety Specialist Apprenticeship Program. Sorensen strategically set the safety professionals up in positions to succeed geographically around the region, and focused on developing behavior-based safety mindsets to operate as positive collaborators with superintendents, project managers, subcontractors and field staff. Garnering trust has laid the groundwork for cohesive collaborations where employees’ input is valued, heard and put into motion with the continuous improvement of the safety program.

Another successful strategy Sorensen implemented is making safety an integral part of Exxel Pacific’s practices. Safety can often feel like it is another hurdle to overcome or an inconvenience. By building a culture where safety management is ingrained in every step of our process — project selection, subcontractor selection, preconstruction and execution of the project — he feels that exceptional safety performance can be achieved. In 2017, Exxel Pacific became a 100% employee-owned company where executing work safely was paramount to everyone’s future success. With all employees being owners, their commitment to safety is much more important. If an accident were to occur, they all feel the impact, so they strive to eliminate hazards and call out unsafe behavior. This approach has been successful, and team members are reaching out to Sorensen prior to execution of work to “get it right” the first time. This is a proactive approach where risk can be eliminated rather than waiting until a critical moment, looking to safety to “fix it,” allowing for more efficient and safer projects.

Sorensen is also focused on maintaining work-life balance, which was a large part of his draw to Exxel Pacific as a family-first company. Sorensen believes his main role in life is being a great dad to his sons, aged eight and 10. Through weekly communication with his team, Sorensen models this as a leader, encouraging his employees to monitor their work-life balance, ensuring that they are enjoying a robust life inside and outside of work.


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