Shamim Rayani

Corporate Head, HSE

H.L. Agro Products Pvt. Ltd.

Food and Beverage Manufacturing

India

⭐ Leaders at a Glance

Leaders at a Glance

Charting new horizons in India’s dynamic food manufacturing sector, Shamim Rayani, Corporate Head, HSE, of H.L. Agro Products Pvt. Ltd., engineers an exemplary framework of uncompromising safety governance and sustainable progress. Merging rigorous risk-mitigation strategies with visionary leadership, he transforms industrial HSE practices into a core business asset, fostering a resilient ecosystem where absolute workplace safety and corporate growth seamlessly thrive together.

Name: Shamim Rayani
Designation: Corporate Head, HSE
Company: H.L. Agro Products Pvt. Ltd.
Industry: Food and Beverage Manufacturing
Country: India

Shamim Rayani -Most Influential Business Leaders in India 2026

A helmet is an essential part of a safety system, but behind every helmet is a life, a family and a reason to return home safely. Shamim Rayani has carried this belief throughout more than three decades of HSE leadership across refineries, infrastructure, construction, fertiliser and food-processing environments.

His professional journey began with 26 years at Hindalco, where he learned that safety cannot remain confined to rules, procedures or compliance documents. It must become part of how people think, communicate, and make decisions—especially when production pressure is high and the consequences of a wrong decision can be serious.

Today, as Corporate Head – HSE at H.L. Agro Products Pvt. Ltd., Shamim Rayani combines risk management, field verification, Behaviour-Based Safety, and technology with a deeply human approach to leadership. The Portfolio Magazine explores how he is building safety through trust, accountability and a responsibility that extends beyond the workplace.

How did your early experience at Hindalco prepare you for the HSE leadership role you hold today?

My early years at Hindalco taught me that a plant functions through much more than procedures. Working in operations and maintenance helped me see how safety connects with equipment reliability, operating discipline, production pressure and human behaviour. A turning point came when I began counselling workers by reminding them of a strong message; You are the strength of your family. Your life is precious to them. Conversations around family relationships and their children’s career planning gradually helped workers see safety as something personal rather than simply a company requirement. That changed my understanding of safety leadership. Technical competence and hazard recognition remain essential, but respectful communication, root-cause thinking and genuine concern for people can influence behaviour far more deeply than instructions alone.

When safety measures compete with operational deadlines, how do you stand firm?

I have never believed that standing firm on safety means standing against production.

During a high-risk maintenance activity, there was pressure to begin before isolation and emergency arrangements had been completely verified. I withheld HSE clearance and brought the Operations, Maintenance and Contractor teams together to reconfirm the critical safeguards.

The activity was delayed, but it was completed safely without incident. The experience reinforced an important responsibility of an HSE leader. We must explain the risk, support the decision with evidence and help the business find a safe way forward.

A short delay can be managed. The consequences of an injury, fire, contamination event or major shutdown can be far more serious. Businesses should move forward, but never through uncontrolled risk.

What major safety challenges have stood out to you across different industries?

Every industry has a different risk profile, yet one challenge repeatedly appears across sectors. The gap between written procedures and the way work is actually performed in the field.

Refineries and fertiliser plants involve chemicals, pressure and fire hazards, while construction and infrastructure bring contractor interfaces, lifting activities, unsafe shortcuts and behavioural risks. Food processing adds machinery, combustible dust, utilities and contamination concerns.

At Voltas Ltd., a Tata Enterprise, I saw how safety could become a shared organisational value. In 2016, during the construction phase of the Tata Steel Kalinganagar project, Tata Steel was implementing its Contractor Safety Management (CSM) system. I supported the implementation of the system on behalf of Voltas. Subsequently, Voltas became the first contractor/vendor to establish the required CSM system and achieved a four-star rating out of five under Tata Steel’s assessment.

Leadership commitment, worker participation and Behaviour-Based Safety contributed to 4.0 million safe man-hours without LTI. Tata Steel Kalinga Nagar later nominated me as a CSM Mentor to support other contractors.

I was associated with World Bank-supported Namami Gange projects in Bihar through Voltas Ltd. and VA Tech WABAG Ltd. I contributed to strengthening site-level safety culture and the safe construction, commissioning, and O&M of sewage-treatment infrastructure. The project’s safety performance was appreciated by the World Bank team, reinforcing that leadership, accountability, and field engagement make safety sustainable.

What are the early warning signs that an organisation is becoming complacent about safety?

Safety complacency develops through small compromises. Declining near-miss reporting, long-pending corrective actions, recurring housekeeping issues, weak toolbox talks and incomplete permits are all warning signs.

I pay particular attention to the normalisation of deviation. When unsafe shortcuts continue without an incident, people can gradually begin accepting them as normal. Silence is equally concerning. When employees believe reporting a problem will not lead to action, or fear negative consequences for speaking up, important warnings disappear.

Good documentation can also create false confidence when field implementation is weak. Leaders need to remain visible at the workplace, listen without creating fear and verify whether corrective actions are genuinely effective. A mature safety culture stays alert even when injury statistics look satisfactory.

Where do you see the biggest opportunities to advance HSE practices in India?

India has an opportunity to move towards more predictive, integrated and people-centred HSE management. Food processing is a good example because Occupational Safety, Process Safety, Fire Prevention, Food Safety, Environmental Management and Business Continuity need to work together.

Digital reporting, leading-indicator dashboards, Artificial Intelligence, predictive maintenance and real-time monitoring can help organisations identify weak signals earlier. Technology, however, should strengthen human judgement rather than replace it.

I prepare my team through continuous learning, cross-functional audits, Behaviour-Based Safety, data analysis and practical digital tools. Data can identify where a weakness exists, but trained people must still understand the risk, challenge unsafe conditions and act before a weakness becomes an incident.

After decades in HSE, what principle has become non-negotiable?

My non-negotiable principle is that no business objective justifies exposing people, the community, the environment or the organisation to uncontrolled risk. After decades in industry, safety has become deeply personal because behind every helmet is someone whose family expects them home safely.

Leadership must give people the confidence to report mistakes, question decisions and stop unsafe work without fear. Procedures and technology matter, but trust, competence and accountability determine whether they work when it matters most. My approach has become simple over the years: listen before deciding, verify before accepting and act before a warning becomes an incident. Protecting people with dignity is responsible leadership.

“Behind every helmet is someone whose family expects them home safely.”

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