GE Renewables’ Lisa Mallon Elected Chair of Global Wind Organisation

Global Wind Organisation (GWO) has renewed its ambition to bring standardised safety training to a growing wind workforce under the leadership of its new Chair and Executive Committee.

GE Renewables Global Executive Leader for Onshore Wind, Lisa Mallon, has been elected Chair of GWO. Lisa will serve for two years and will be supported by Vice Chairs Jill Lees, Director of HSE and Sustainability, RWE Renewables and John Barrie, Global Head of Training, Vestas.

Lisa has been Vice Chair of GWO’s Executive Committee since 2020 and she takes over from Paul Robbins, Corporate Head of Health and Safety at Vestas who steps down following completion of his two-year term.

A respected figure in the wind energy and renewables sector, Lisa began her renewable energy career with Scottish Power(Iberdrola) in 1999 as business leader for safety, before joining GE in 2009 where she has led teams of safety professionals supporting manufacturing, project and service activities across global customer locations. In 2021, she became EHS Executive Leader, Onshore Wind with GE Renewable Energy, a senior leadership position leading EHS strategy and safe operations for the OEM.

“I am very proud to have been elected Chair of the GWO Executive Committee and I would like to thank my colleagues for this opportunity. For the past ten years under the leadership of Paul Robbins and his predecessors, GWO has grown and professionalized into the global body for workforce training standards in the wind industry. I look forward to continuing our long-term strategy of establishing the standards across all wind markets, developing workforce training that meets the safety needs of our technicians and provides good governance and quality assurance of the training wherever it is delivered.”

Paul Robbins, who vacates the Chair to Lisa today, said: "Lisa is an excellent choice for our next Chair and I would like to personally congratulate her. As GWO enters its second decade, the organisation has the depth of squad needed both from Lisa at the helm and a highly competent team behind her to advance GWO towards its long term strategic goals."

Jakob Lau-Holst, Chief Executive Officer of GWO added: “Lisa has already shown us what a great leader and advocate for safety she can be, having first joined our Audit & Compliance Committee in 2019 and the past two years as Executive Committee Vice Chair. Her strategic mindset and industry experience will help advance us further on course towards achieving our mission of creating an injury free working environment in the wind industry.”

GWO Executive Committee 2022-2023

Elected Representatives

Executive Committee Chair - Lisa Mallon (GE Renewable Energy)

Executive Committee Vice Chair - Jill Lees (RWE Renewables)

Executive Committee Vice Chair - John Barrie (Vestas)

Standing Committee Chairs

Training Committee Chair - Ann Duedahl (GE Renewables)

Training Committee Vice Chair - Thor Inge Throndsen (Equinor)

Audit & Compliance Committee Chair - Jesper Bagge Hansen (Ørsted)

Audit & Compliance Committee Vice Chair - Peter Lloyd (Vattenfall)

North America Committee Chair - Kristy Abel (Avangrid Renewables)

North America Committee Vice Chair - Will Kenyon (Ørsted)

China Committee Chair - Qin Hayan (CWEA)

China Committee Deputy - Yu Hui (CWEA)

About GWO

GWO is a non-profit group of wind turbine owners and wind turbine manufacturers, committed to the creation and adoption of standardized safety training and emergency procedures.

Independent training providers deliver GWO-certified training to technicians and students worldwide. There are currently eleven GWO training standards, containing a total of 30 modules. For more information on GWO standards, visit this page.

Training records are created when a GWO standard course is passed and completed by a participant. These records are uploaded and stored in the GWO WINDA database, allowing workers to transfer their skills to new employers, reducing frictional costs and eliminating retraining of basic skills.

In 2021, more than 80,000 people completed a GWO standard training, at one of 455 certified training centres in 48 countries. The total GWO Trained Workforce (people with a valid GWO training record) was 122,573 as of 31.12.2021.

GWO member companies

Acciona, Avangrid, CGN Wind Power, CRRC, Cubico Sustainable Investments, Enel Green Power, Enercon, Envision, Equinor, GE Renewable Energy, Goldwind, Iberdrola, The Nordex Group, Ørsted, RWE Renewables, Shanghai Electric, Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy, SSE, Vattenfall and Vestas.

All photos and graphics copyright Global Wind Organisation

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