David Marx is CEO of The Just Culture Company, a risk management firm. David has a BS in Mechanical Systems Engineering (1985) and Juris Doctor in Law (1997). David’s firm currently spends the majority of its effort on helping high-consequence organizations develop values- supportive practices and culture.
David began his career as a Boeing aircraft design engineer. In his final years at Boeing, David organized a maintenance human factors and safety group. In his work at Boeing, David won the International Federation of Airworthiness’s Whittle Safety Award for his development of a human error investigation process used by airlines around the world.
In 1997, David launched a research and consulting practice focused on the management of human error through the integration of systems engineering, human factors, and the law. David has served as an advisor to the Federal Aviation Administration’s Human Factors Research Program and to the NASA Space Shuttle Program. David was the principal consultant to NASA in development of their major mishap investigation process, and he led an outside team to benchmark space shuttle processing quality. David has developed risk modeling methods, including an approach called socio-technical probabilistic risk assessment (ST-PRA), which has been used to model risk high-consequence industries around the world.
In the healthcare sector, David has been working to help healthcare institutions and regulatory agencies reduce the risk of iatrogenic patient harm. In the area of system design, David’s
ST-PRA process has been used to model and mitigate risks from wrong site surgery to medication errors. In the area of safety culture, David authored the document, “Patient Safety and the ‘Just Culture’: A Primer for Healthcare Executives,” for the National Institutes of Health. Widely seen as the father of “Just Culture,” David and his firm administer the Just Culture Community, a resource for organizations across industries who strive to create accountable, safety supportive cultures.
