At a recent session at the HSE MENA 2025, anticipation grew as Islam Adra, Vice President of Health, Safety, and Environment (HSE) at DP World, took the stage.
An accomplished leader who has worked for several Fortune and FTSE 100 companies, he currently steers the safety agenda at one of the world's largest logistics companies.
Adra's session offered the latest, evidence-based insights into leadership within HSE, a theme central to his illustrious career and recent doctoral research.
The heart of Adra’s introduction lay in sharing his professional journey. As a newly minted PhD, former Chair of IOSH in the Middle East (2019–2020), and a seasoned educator and advocate, Adra has been unwavering in his mission to elevate standards and promote a culture of care across industries.
His philosophy, encapsulated in the “Care to Lead” programme, is rooted in the conviction that effective leadership in safety is as much about empathy and advocacy as it is about regulation and compliance. For Adra, promoting HSE isn’t merely a job role; it is a calling, driven by humility and a deep commitment to safeguarding lives and wellbeing within challenging environments.
In a move designed to both engage and challenge, Adra introduced a riddle to the audience, posing a sequence of numbers and inviting the room to guess the next in line. This interactive moment was not merely a test of wit, but an invitation to collaborative thinking, underlining the importance of collective intelligence in solving complex safety challenges. With humour and encouragement, Adra created a space that promoted participation and sharpness of mind, qualities that are indispensable in safety leadership.
While the session promised to unveil ground-breaking research and practical insights, Adra’s introduction reflected the enduring qualities of effective HSE leaders: expertise, adaptability, and an unwavering focus on not just rules but on people. In a world where safety challenges evolve rapidly, leaders like Islam Adra are guiding the frontier with knowledge, humanity, and a vision that genuinely cares to lead.
