About Steve
CHESP, Occupational Diving Safety Advisor. More than 50 years of military and commercial diving, spent answering one question: how do we make occupational diving safer?
The beginning
Steve Donovan's career began where it has always belonged: under the surface. What started as a love of the water became a professional calling that now spans more than fifty years of diving in military and commercial service.
That longevity is rare, and it is precisely what makes his judgment worth seeking out. He has lived the work, not just studied it.
The work
From military operations to commercial construction, from harbours and rigs to rivers and inland waters, Steve has worked in almost every environment an occupational diver can encounter. Each environment carries its own hazards, and each taught him something the others could not.
That breadth is the foundation of his judgement. When a new project asks about risk, he is not meeting the hazard for the first time.
The hard truths
The work has not been without loss. Steve has witnessed incidents and lost colleagues along the way. Those losses are not abstract statistics; they are the reason he speaks so plainly about risk.
When he warns that a hazard does not care who you are or why you are there, he is describing something he has seen up close. The lesson is hard-earned, and it shapes everything ODRM does.
The question
Years of watching the same hazards recur in certain sectors produced one question that has never left him: why do some sectors of occupational diving continue to experience levels of risk that would be considered unacceptable in many other workplaces?
The question is simple to ask and difficult to answer honestly. ODRM exists to answer it with evidence and experience.
Occupational diving cannot simply be viewed as another form of recreational or military diving. Steve Donovan, on why ODRM exists
Purpose
ODRM was created to answer that lifelong question with evidence and experience, helping the people responsible for diving work understand the risks before the first diver enters the water.
Independence is the point. ODRM has nothing to sell and nothing to hide, only a lifetime of experience applied to the risks that matter in occupational diving.
Credentials
50+ years in military and commercial diving
CHESP certified safety professional
Occupational Diving Safety Advisor
Worked across military and commercial sectors
Experience in harbours, rigs, rivers, and inland waters
Advisor to regulators and project owners
Evidence-led risk assessment
Incident review without blame
Practical dive planning guidance
Independent, unbiased counsel
Start the conversation
Independent guidance, grounded in more than fifty years of experience. Reach out and let's talk before the first diver enters the water.
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