President’s Award Winner Markeese Jones

Piedmont Safety and Regulatory Compliance

Nomination: It’s with immense pride that I nominate Markeese Jones for the prestigious President’s Award. Markeese is a Safety Champion within his own right. As anyone in his station can tell you, he is THE Ground Safety Manager, and he lives out that role fully. He represents some of the very best of our company’s Safety Culture – someone who thrives on engaging with each team member, listens with an empathetic ear, and takes concerns and discussions with warranted seriousness. When you see Markeese in the terminal, it’s common to have him wave or say hello to approximately 15 employees every 15 ft. which exemplifies how connected he is with the local team. These connections and relationships are exactly how Markeese promotes compliance across the board – and he never hesitates to discuss the value and importance of compliance 1-on-1 with someone and share his observations and insights. In our department, one of our tools to measure and promote compliance further is by having touchpoints with team members regularly, and Markeese consistently goes above and beyond his required metrics. For 2025, Markeese had nearly three times the amount of recorded Safety conversations with team members than any other peer; conducted over 30 New Hire class presentations; and had the most walk throughs with station leadership to partner on promoting compliance in the operation. Not only was this at his own station, but Markeese took on supporting another station as we filled a vacancy and never hesitated to say yes when a station needed added Safety representation onsite. Because of his exemplary willingness to go above and beyond his role and really own his role in Safety, I believe Markeese is well-deserving of this recognition.