When Mark McKeon started his career working in construction, he didn’t imagine he’d become a safety leader. That changed the day someone handed him a 29 CFR 1926 OSHA book and said, “Just make sure we’re compliant.” Two decades later, safety isn’t just his profession—it’s his passion.

Today, as Senior Director of Safety at Rowan Digital Infrastructure, Mark is responsible for shaping safety strategy on some of the most complex, high-powered data center projects in the country. And while OSHA codes got him started, Mark’s safety philosophy has evolved. “I didn't realize that by just following the book, you could still severely injure somebody,” Mark reflects. Over the years, he’s come to see that true safety means looking beyond the rulebook and focusing on what it actually takes to protect the people doing the work.

With the demand for data centers skyrocketing, the risks are evolving fast. Rowan’s projects now span hundreds of thousands of square feet and involve enormous precast wall panels, heavy cranes, and underground utilities—all of which create unique hazards.

“We’ve moved from building 50-megawatt facilities to data centers that now range from 150 to 300 megawatts,” Mark explained. “That kind of scale introduces a whole new set of safety challenges, especially when it comes to power and excavation. The electrical exposures alone demand a much greater focus on protecting workers.”

Rethinking Risk From the Ground Up

At Rowan, safety starts with presence. Mark emphasizes the importance of time spent on-site, not just inspecting, but engaging. “My biggest focus is actually just spending time with the crews,” he explained. And Mark encourages his team to get out in the field, too. “Understand what their exposures are, understand what affects them, and get more involved with what they’re doing.”

That visibility in the field informs how Rowan approaches everything, from selecting PPE to how tasks are engineered. If a glove isn’t the right protection, Mark’s team rethinks the task. If more fall protection gear is needed, Rowan makes it happen. “If doing it safer means it costs more, then that’s what we do—because safety isn’t negotiable.”

Mark isn’t alone in pushing for a stronger safety culture. Rowan’s executive team is deeply invested in safety outcomes. Weekly conversations with the COO are the norm, and even Rowan’s managing partners are involved in strategic safety discussions. “Our C-suite is heavily engaged in the success of our safety program, as well as our company.”

With Mark’s leadership and executive support, Rowan is willing to invest where it counts: better equipment, more training, and stronger partnerships with general contractors and subcontractors.

Involving the Entire Ecosystem

Mark believes safety is a shared responsibility. That’s why his team engages with trade partners early, often a month or two before a project even breaks ground, “so that we’re actually talking about safety before we even get started in the field.”

Rowan recently launched a new safety forum to collect and share lessons learned across its projects. These forums are not limited to internal stakeholders; they’re designed to foster collaboration across GCs, down-tier contractors, and even competitors. Sharing knowledge across projects and partners is a major focus for Mark. “I spend a fair amount of time talking to my past colleagues and other companies,” Mark said. “If we’re not sharing, we’re not providing the best opportunity for our workers to stay safe.”

Streamlining Prequalification with Highwire

When Mark joined Rowan in 2024, contractor prequalification was a manual, time-consuming process. As the number of projects and contractors grew, that system broke down. “The list just kept getting longer,” he said.

With Highwire in place, Mark and his team have gotten time back in their already busy days, while getting richer results. “Highwire has really supported the effort in getting contractors prequalified faster and doing a more in-depth review,” Mark said. “We're confident in the systems that Highwire has to provide the support we need to do a thorough analysis of the contractors. That makes it faster for us to develop mitigation plans, support these contractors, and reinforce their safety programs.”

What stood out to Mark was Highwire’s AI-driven technology, which can pinpoint gaps in contractor safety manuals that might otherwise be overlooked. “It highlights areas that are incomplete or missing—things we may not have caught with a manual review,” he explained.

He’s also pushing to do more with Highwire—especially around serious injury and fatality (SIF) prevention. Rowan is tracking high-risk activities and exposures and implementing learnings from the insights surfaced in Highwire.

A Safety Culture Workers Carry with Them

Mark is also rethinking how workers are prepared for the job. One change he’s led is replacing static stretch-and-flex routines with dynamic movement programs designed to support physical well-being. Mark believes we should treat workers more like athletes than laborers. “Our workforce is moving more frequently, and they’re getting into awkward positions. Addressing that upfront reduces the likelihood of common muscle injuries that can be long-lasting.”

Ultimately, Mark’s goal is simple but powerful: make Rowan a place workers want to be. “When a union worker sees they’re going to a Rowan project, I want them to be enthusiastic because they know what they’re coming into,” Mark said. “But I also want them to take these best practices that they’re learning from our company and share them with other projects that they go to.”

For Mark, safety isn’t proprietary—it’s a shared responsibility. It’s something you share. “If we say that our safety documents and practices are confidential, we’re missing the bigger picture,” he said. “We’re missing the opportunity to improve the industry.” Early in his career, Mark saw safety programs treated like trade secrets, kept behind legal and organizational walls. But that approach doesn’t hold up in a world where contractors move from job to job. By sharing what’s working—whether it’s a best practice or a hard lesson—companies like Rowan can help raise the bar across job sites and across competitors. “How the company performs is only as good as what your contractors do.” To truly improve safety, companies need to invest in their partners and share what works, whether it’s a hard-earned lesson or a proactive solution.

That mindset—openness over ownership—drives Mark’s vision for the future of safety. He regularly shares Rowan’s programs and learnings with peers across the industry because better outcomes depend on collective progress. “I can show you the best program in the world,” he said. “But it only matters if someone’s willing to adopt it.” For Mark, that kind of transparency isn’t just a nice-to-have—it’s essential to moving the industry forward.

Learn more about Rowan Digital Infrastructure and how Highwire is supporting the data center industry. For additional insights and to explore how other global data center leaders use Highwire to manage safety, visit How NTT Global Data Centers Connects Safety Across Every Site with Andrew Boyea and Adam Board on Building a Culture of Care at T5 Data Centers.