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Q Safety Consultants’ Luis Quintanar, Health, Safety and Environment (HSE) Manager, and Jessica Quintanar, CEO/President, focus on helping small and midsize construction firms implement and reinforce comprehensive safety best practices and protocols at an affordable price.

One of the core areas of training emphasis at Q Safety Consultants is a focus on OSHA’s top four construction safety hazards: falls, struck-by, caught-in/between and electrocutions.

Construction safety and all the associated procedures is a knowledge and passion that usually emerges over time, through strife and struggles.

Luis and Jessica Quintanar were likely born with it. The two own and operate Central Texas-based Q Safety Consultants, one of the most comprehensive safety consulting, training, and equipment supplier companies in South Texas, supporting the construction industry across multiple markets.

Beyond the familiar training and certification programs, the two take a big picture approach to safety services, educating the community, operating an online/in-person safety equipment store and developing next generation technology-enabled safety management applications.

As Luis says, “We want to be the Amazon of safety.” Their experiences over the last 15 years provide them a unique platform to achieve that goal.

The Early Days

Luis began his professional construction career as a laborer for a demolition company in San Antonio at the age of 18. By the time he was 22, his job site superintendent asked him to be the company safety officer.

“I think it was because I was the one that asked the most questions,” he recalls. “Of course, I had taken the required safety courses that emphasized the danger of confined spaces, excavation, slips/trips/falls, etc. But I wanted to know more.”

Not long after, he took a job with a drywall company as a safety officer, a position he maintained until 2006, all the while continuing to build his OSHA and related safety certifications. He also expanded his experiences beyond the traditional construction job site to include skills as an industrial firefighter and a hazmat technician while consulting at an Iowa-based steel mill.

“I was trying to get as much experience as I could across all areas of construction, energy, manufacturing, etc., so that I could better understand the complexities and learn best practices that might help serve my current and future clients.” He continued to work part time as a safety manager for a friend’s local construction company and part time as a safety consultant for other companies in the San Antonio area, while continuing to build his skills through training and certifications.

Along the way, Luis met (and married) Jessica, a commercial/residential real estate agent, underwriter and licensed insurance agent with experience in risk management. Jessica says, “I got my experience in the risk management space from the business side, handling commercial underwriting for loans.”

By 2008, Luis and Jessica formalized Luis’ safety consulting business by establishing Q Safety with Luis as President and Jessica as Operations Manager, though Luis continued to work with other enterprises.

Continuing Education

Early on, Q Safety hosted a lot of its safety training courses in hotels and conference rooms and some on-site mobile trailers.

Luis says, “It was really the oil and gas boom in 2011 that gave us a huge boost in customers, greater visibility—and our first employee. It’s a dangerous business working on these projects. We provided all the necessary OSHA 10-hour and OSHA 30-hour training that crews needed to work on the job sites.”

By the end of 2011, the company’s reputation for comprehensive safety training had spread.

During this time, Luis also served as an Environmental Health & Safety (EHS) Manager with 360training, an Austin-based online training and certification company, from 2009-2012. His job included providing OSHA 10-hour and 30-hour course instruction, working with e-learning tools and learning management systems to create EHS course curriculums and authoring and translating on-site and online training. He also served as a bilingual safety trainer for clients around the country.

Note, he is also listed by the U.S. Department of Labor OSHA as an authorized Spanish Outreach Trainer in South Texas. He also helped develop one of the industry’s first online training programs for OSHA 10-hour and OSHA 30-hour certifications.

Refocused and Resolute

2012 would be a turning point for the company, and for Jessica and Luis. At the time, Q Safety had about 100 clients and two safety training employees. The company’s services ranged from consulting, training and inspections to a wide range of industries including construction, transportation, health care, mining, maritime, oil and gas and defense.

With an eye on growth, Luis and Jessica reorganized the company leadership to give Luis more time to focus on expanding company services.

He says, “We wanted to be a one-stop shop for everything from training to the development of custom job site safety plans. To do that, we needed to take better advantage of Jessica’s experience as an underwriter, knowledge of safety and business acumen.”

Jessica, leaving behind the real estate business, confirms, “We noticed that safety consultants typically focused on one area of expertise, such as training, but sent clients somewhere else for PPE [equipment]. That seemed unnecessarily tedious for contractors especially, who are already busy trying to complete jobs.”

That same year, Jessica took over as CEO/President in charge of operations and administration while Luis, as Health, Safety and Environment (HSE) Manager, focused on expanding safety-related services.

That dedication proved rewarding.

“We want to be the Amazon of safety.” Luis Quintanar, Health, Safety and Environment (HSE) Manager, Q Safety Consultants

Service-Driven

Over the last four years, the company has grown from four to 10 employees, and expanded into three divisions: Consulting, Training & Equipment, and Software Development. The consulting part of the business includes 300+ clients that range from municipalities, including the cities of Austin and San Antonio, as well as a number of public and private sector owners/operators and contracting firms. The facility incorporates three classrooms capable of holding 20 students in each room. The company provides training and mentoring throughout online courses, inspections and audits and also develops complete site safety programs.

As part of its one-stop-shop quest, Q Safety also launched an equipment and supply service under its Training & Equipment Division.

Jessica says, “Many of our clients need respirators, fall protection harnesses, fire extinguishers, safety glasses, hard hats, first aid kits, etc. For years, we sent them to other places.”

In 2019, Jessica put together the Qsafetystore.com service, which also required an expansion of their facility to include a warehouse/storage facility, a physical store and a showroom.

The supply service officially opened in January 2020—fortuitous timing considering the COVID-19 pandemic that would emerge in the following months. Q Safety has provided everything from PPE supplies to sanitizing wipes to construction companies as well as providing over 2,000 face shields to health care facilities in Texas since March. Contractor clients come in daily for equipment such as hard hats, gloves, vests and fall protection gear.

Luis was also busy at work crafting COVID-related safety protocols based on CDC guidelines that the company has provided to clients. In one case, a small industrial services contractor in San Antonio was asked to leave a job site until they could deliver a COVID-19 safety plan. He adds, “The owner called us and we were able to get them back on the job that same day.”

Q Safety is also developing a safety management application designed specifically for small and midsized contractors that has the ability to track training records, create custom curriculums, manage inspections and audits, and much more. The app, called Qsafetyapp.com, is currently being tested by several of Q Safety’s customers. Designed for Android and iOS devices, the application will be ready for commercial release by the end of this year.

Reinforcing a Culture

Luis and Jessica reinforce that they’re mission is to innovate, not compete, with other safety companies. Luis adds, “Our job is to provide the best training to every individual on a job site and make sure that company complies with federal, state and local regulations…and that requires continuous learning.”

Achieving that goal for these two safety enthusiasts means continually challenging themselves. Jessica, for instance, recently earned a degree in Business Management from Wayland Baptist University in San Antonio and is currently working on her master’s degree in Occupational Health. She also joined the National Association of Women in Construction (NAWIC) San Antonio Chapter #11, an organization focused on helping the community and promoting the success of women in the construction industry. Jessica currently serves as Vice President of that local organization. The two are also expanding relationships in the industry. The company recently joined National Center for Construction Education & Research (NCCER) as a way to offer expertise and better understand industry needs.

Luis says, “It’s very difficult for small and midsize construction firms to support the safety best practices and protocols that are common in the big firms. Our challenge is to change that status quo.”

Jessica agrees, concluding, “Our mission is to make real and effective change by helping general contractors and subcontractors implement and reinforce safety best practices at an affordable price. Through comprehensive services, we’re doing just that.”