Avetta appoints Lynda Richards as APAC health chief

Avetta has appointed Lynda Richards as APAC Principal, Health and Safety, expanding its health and safety leadership in the region.

Richards will work across Avetta's Risk Advisory, Product Management, and regional leadership teams. She will support the company's health and safety efforts in Asia-Pacific and contribute to product and service development for contractor management and supply chain risk.

The appointment adds an executive with experience in governance, contractor management, and operational risk from roles at Sydney Airport, Qantas, Thales, and CBRE. That background is expected to inform Avetta's work with businesses managing complex supply chains in sectors including aviation, infrastructure, defence, and property.

Her remit includes helping address work readiness gaps across supply chains. The hire is part of a broader effort to add more industry experience to teams focused on risk and safety issues.

Avetta provides compliance, prequalification, safety, and performance benchmarking tools through a single platform used by hiring clients and suppliers. Its network includes more than 360,000 companies in over 120 countries.

Richards will report to Scott DeBow, Director, Health and Safety, at Avetta. The role sits within the company's Risk Advisory practice, which combines health and safety, procurement, and environmental, social and governance expertise with data from its customer and supplier network.

Regional focus

The hire signals a continued focus on the Asia-Pacific market, where businesses face growing scrutiny over contractor oversight, operational risk, and supply chain resilience. Companies across infrastructure, transport, and property have been under pressure to improve how they assess suppliers and monitor on-site safety performance.

For software and advisory providers in this market, recruiting leaders with direct operational experience has become a common approach. Businesses want advice and systems shaped by people who have managed risk and contractor relationships inside large organisations, rather than by product teams alone.

Richards pointed to that operational background in comments on the appointment. "Having worked on the client side, I'm very familiar with the implementation and operational processes that go hand-in-hand with adopting new technologies," she said. "I'm excited to bring those insights and knowledge to Avetta so we can deliver improved and aligned outcomes for our customers, helping them build stronger, more resilient supply chains to drive long-term success."

Her client-side experience may be particularly relevant for organisations trying to introduce new compliance and safety systems without disrupting established procurement and operations processes. In large supply chains, the challenge often lies not only in collecting supplier data but also in ensuring contractors, site managers, and procurement teams use the same standards.

Advisory team

Luke Boyle, Vice President of APAC Operations at Avetta, linked the appointment to customer demand in the region for stronger approaches to safety and risk oversight. "We're thrilled to welcome Lynda to Avetta," Boyle said. "Lynda's expertise in these specialist areas will be invaluable as we focus on increasing safety and risk maturity throughout the supply chain in APAC. For our local customers, having someone of Lynda's calibre on board is going to be transformative for the way they interact with Avetta's solutions."

Avetta has built its business around helping clients assess whether suppliers meet required standards before they begin work, while also tracking ongoing compliance and performance. Adding Richards suggests the company sees a need to pair those tools more closely with regional operational knowledge as clients respond to changing expectations around contractor governance.

The appointment also highlights the importance of health and safety expertise in supply chain software markets that have broadened from compliance checks into wider risk management. As companies seek better visibility over contractors and suppliers, executives with experience across safety, governance, and operations are becoming more prominent in product, advisory, and customer-facing roles.

Richards joins Avetta after holding roles in organisations where contractor oversight and operational continuity are central concerns, including airports, airlines, defence, and commercial property. Those sectors share a reliance on large supplier networks and strict safety requirements, making them a useful testing ground for systems designed to identify and manage risk.