Roy Farmer is a Board Certified Occupational Health and Safety Technologist with more than 35 years of global experience in energy, construction, and manufacturing. He has personally trained over 10,000 individuals across 18 countries, developed 154 trainers, and certified 16 subject matter experts in root cause investigation methodology.
He is the developer of the Sherpa Cognitive Verification Method, a structured protocol that makes worker thinking observable and measurable before exposure to risk. The method was not designed in a conference room. It was built in gravel yards, on drilling rigs, in manufacturing plants, and on construction sites where the consequences of getting it wrong are measured in ambulances, not audit findings.
Credentials
Industry Recognition
Roy led the development of the safety programs that received the NOIA Safety in Seas Award (2023) for Risk Management and the COS Safety Leadership Award (2016). He has served on the TapRoot Advisory Board and the DROPS North American Steering Committee. He is an active member of the American Society of Safety Professionals (ASSP) Acadian Chapter.
His keynote presentations on cognitive verification and the limits of compliance-based safety have been delivered to organizations including BP, Shell, Hess, Helmerich and Payne (H&P), and DROPS Online.org.
Global Experience
Roy's operational experience spans 18 countries across six continents, including the United States, United Kingdom, Norway, Canada, Mexico, Indonesia, Oman, and Saudi Arabia. He has managed field crews during the Eagle Ford Shale boom (2011-2012), one of the most dangerous periods in Texas oilfield history, where the consequences of inadequate safety systems were measured daily in fatalities and catastrophic injuries.
This field experience provides authentic credibility that distinguishes his approach from classroom-only safety professionals. The workers and supervisors he trains recognize someone who has stood where they stand.