The Safety Superhero Academy Founder Named IOSH Influencer of the Year
The Safety Superhero Academy® founder and director Bethany Holroyd has been named IOSH Influencer of the Year 2026, celebrating individuals and organisations making an impact across occupational safety and health globally. The Influencer of the Year category recognises individuals whose work is creating meaningful influence in safety and health, including those finding new ways to engage people, extend the reach of the profession and create impact beyond traditional approaches.
Bethany received the award at the IOSH Awards on 24 September 2026, after being shortlisted in a particularly large category alongside professionals from across the world.
Bethany was shortlisted for the breadth and originality of her work, which spans her role as founder of The Safety Superhero Academy®, her work as a Chartered safety and health professional, author, keynote speaker and consultant, and her approach to taking safety, health and wellbeing into spaces and audiences not traditionally reached by the profession.
On the evening, particular recognition was given to the originality of Bethany’s work and her ability to create wider influence beyond the conventional occupational safety and health role.
For Bethany, that recognition made the award particularly significant.
“I genuinely didn’t expect to win. It was a huge category with some incredible people shortlisted from around the world, so just being amongst them was something I was really proud of.”
“When they spoke about the originality of my work and reaching beyond the conventional OSH role, that was probably the part that meant the most to me. I’ve built my career around the belief that our influence as a profession can extend so much further than the workplace.”
Bethany founded The Safety Superhero Academy® after recognising an opportunity to begin conversations about safety, health and wellbeing much earlier in life. Since then, her work has developed across education, industry and public engagement, while her wider career has continued through writing, speaking and consultancy. It is the combination of these different areas that has allowed her to engage audiences ranging from senior business leaders and safety professionals to educators, families and children under the age of 11.
“I’ve never believed that safety should only belong to people with safety in their job title.”
“There are so many different ways we can influence how people think about and engage with safety, health and wellbeing. Sometimes that means speaking to hundreds of professionals at an event, sometimes it means working with a business or an educator, and sometimes it means sitting on a school hall floor talking to five-year-olds.”
“Being recognised by IOSH for doing something different, particularly when the Academy started from absolutely nothing, is something I’m incredibly proud of.”
The award represents a major milestone for Bethany and The Safety Superhero Academy®, but also recognition of a wider ambition: to continue expanding where occupational safety and health can have an influence and who can be part of that conversation.
“There is still so much I want to do and so much more I know the Academy can become. Winning this has given me one of those rare moments to actually stop and look at what we’ve built.”
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