Michael N. Ferrara
President and founder of The Driving Center

Michael N. Ferrara has been improving peoples’ safety and health for 20 years. Most of that work was at Johnson & Johnson, the largest health care company in the world. As his work arena shifted from general health and safety to manufacturing to sales and then to fleet safety, so did his geographical scope. In his role as Worldwide Director of SAFE Fleet, he was responsible for guiding the safety of 38,000 employees in the highest risk workplace: the vehicle—whether sedans in the U.S., tuk-tuks in Thailand, or scooters in Vietnam. Under Michael’s leadership, Johnson & Johnson reduced their global motor vehicle accident rate by 42% while their fleet grew at a rate of 110%.

Michael was the innovator and driver of the Johnson & Johnson SAFE Fleet concept and related processes, materials and assessments.

Perhaps one of Michael’s greatest contributions is designing innovative ways to “brand and sell” the value of health and safety to operating and sales organizations. Leaders recognize these programs not as an expense, but as an investment in their employees and the bottom line. Its integration into the work process, and its appeal to the human aspect of behaving safely enables a sustained reduction of incident rates over time. His creativity and commitment to the field of fleet safety has yielded programs that are manageable to implement, and highly effective.

Michael holds an MBA in Global Management, B.S. in Occupational Safety & Health, and A.S. in Manufacturing Engineering. He is a New Jersey State Board Member for M.A.D.D., a Tri-State Board Member for the Spina Bifida Organization and an adjunct professor at New Jersey City University, Jersey City, NJ.