Executive Profiles

Ed Bulkites/Safety Specialist
Expertise: Training, Audits, Consultation, Program Development
Fields: General Industry, Construction, Energy

Mr. Bulkites is Legend Safety's lead General Industry safety specialist responsible for establishing safety programs from the bottom up and implementing them with proficiency.

In the early days of his EHS career he worked for the State of Connecticut Department of Labor, OSHA Division, where he worked as an Occupational Safety Officer and was responsible for compliance inspections in public sector places of employment and OSHA consultation at private sector general industry and construction places of employment.

In the private sector, he held a position with a company with 152,000 employees and $27.9 billion in revenues where he was responsible for driving continuous improvement in safety performance and loss experience in a 14 State, 21 office, region. He managed the development and implementation of global EHS Standard Practices companywide and managed a $1.5 million budget and 5 EHS professionals.

Professional Memberships and Achievements:
•  1800 + hours of classroom instruction in EHS related topics
•  NSC Annual Congress Specialty Session Speaker – 1996, 1997, 2000, 2001, 2003
•  Investigation of the L'Ambience Plaza Collapse
•  Participated in development of guidelines for employment of minors in work experience programs
•  Currently preparing for Associate Risk Management certification
•  Certified Instructor - OSHA Voluntary Compliance Programs
•  Hazmat Incident Responder - Specialist Level
•  American Association of Safety Engineers - Foundation Trustee
•  American National Standards Institute (ANSI) - Committee Member
•  Safety and Health Magazine, Editorial Board
•  National safety Council - OSH Advisory Board



Gene Viele/Safety Specialist
Expertise: Training, Audits, Consultation
Fields: General Industry, Construction, Marine

Mr. Viele's background in safety began when he was a Division Safety Officer with the U.S. Navy and then worked for twelve years as a senior loss control representative for international insurance companies.

in the position of Manager of Safety and Loss Prevention where he was responsible for all safety functions relating to manufacturing, warehousing, workers' compensation, general liability, fleet, machinery, and property.

With several safety and engineering degrees he worked at several prestigious corporate American entities providing a host of services for construction and manufacturing facilities in the following capacities:
•  OSHA VPP STAR Program
•  Construction and General Industry Safety Outreach training
•  NYC Site Safety Director
•  Audits and inspections of all contractor's safety activities

Professional Memberships and Achievements:
•  American Society of Safety Engineers - Member since 1997.
•  Insurance Loss Control Association - Member.
•  Society of Fire Protection Engineers - Member.
•  National Fire Protection Association (N. F. P. A.) - Member.
•  National Fire Sprinkler Association, Inc. - Member.
•  Commissioned Inspector: National Board of Boiler and Pressure Vessel Inspectors
•  International Society for Fall Protection – Member.
•  Lead Safety - Trainer & Competent Person.
•  OSHA Outreach Safety Trainer - Construction and General Industry: 30 hr & 10 hr courses.
•  OSHA Outreach Safety Trainer - Excavation and Trenching.
•  Rough Terrain Forklift Safety Course - Trainer
•  Safe Scaffolding Techniques Course - Trainer
•  40-Hour Hazmat Course - Trainer
•  Respiratory Protection Program - Plan Administrator and Trainer.
•  Licensed Air Sampling Technician (NYS Dept of Health) [Asbestos].
•  EPA Certified: Lead Inspector, Lead Risk Assessor, Lead Abatement Supervisor / Contractor



Rich Nicholas/Safety Specialist
Expertise: Training, Audits, Consultation
Fields: General Industry, Fire Safety, Emergency Response

Having been a battalion chief for 27 years and a former fire inspector, Mr. Nicholas has had the opportunity of advocating safety compliance and implementing safety solutions for many large industrial corporations in the NY-NJ Metro area for many years. His background in electrical/fire safety began when he worked as an Interior Communications Electrician in the US Navy, where he was in charge of a 200 line dial telephone system on board a cruiser.

Mr. Nicholas is an OSHA compliance trainer; CBRNE instructor (weapons of mass destruction/terrorist); New Jersey level II fire instructor; HazMat technician; HazMat instructor for level 1 awareness, level 2 operations/medical operations, lever 3 technician, level 5 on scene incident commander; HazCom instructor incident management instructor.

In addition to industrial safety, Mr. Nicholas is an AHA & ASHI CPR/AED/First aid instructor & instructor trainer; and is a certified EMT.



Sam Zuckerm/Health & Medical Trainer
Expertise: Training
Fields: Health & Medical, Emergency Response

S.Z. brings 15 years of experience of Emergency Response Training in many facets ranging from commercial to health care to industrial.

In the Health Care arena he has been working in both the internal and pediatric medical fields, both in and out of Hospital settings.

As an EMT for over a decade, he has worked as Medical Director for dozens of overnight and day camps in the New York Region, working hand-in-hand with the NYS Department of Health regarding policy making for that industry and worked as a liaison regarding community affairs.

Aside from being the program director for Health & Medical training, SZ has also been involved in general industrial safety programs such as Forklift and HazCom.



Frank Deschino/Health & Medical Trainer
Expertise: Training, Consulting
Fields: Health & Medical, Emergency Response

Upon his graduation from Pace University almost two decades ago, Mr. Deschino began to pursue his career aspiration in Emergency Medical Care. There, he earned his Bachelor's degree majoring in Industrial Hygiene.

In 1984 Mr. Deschino became an Emergency Medical Technician and joined the state's 911 system where he was responsible for responding to medical emergencies and administering basic life support. He upgraded after two years to Advanced Life Support by becoming a paramedic and has been working as a field Paramedic for the past 17 years. Aside from his work at Legend, Mr. Deschino assumes the positions of New York State EMS Coordinator and Captain of a prestigious inter-county paramedic services organization.

He began his teaching career when he ran the Paramedic program for Westchester Community College. His training expertise has since broadened into training emergency medical personnel at all levels, from field emergency rescue personnel to in-house staff of area medical centers.

Mr. Deschino, currently completing a Master's degree in Public Health (MPH), holds board memberships on various prestigious committees such as Regional Faculty for New York State Emergency Council and Hudson Valley EMS council, and is an Officer for the New York State DMV Governors Traffic Safety Committee.