The Belleville Chamber of Commerce recognized Lisa and Rob Hallsworth, co-founders of SDS RiskAssist, with the Cornerstone Visionary 2025 Award at a gala event on May 8.
"The VISIONARY award is presented to a Chamber member who has seen an opportunity to revive or create something unique or unprecedented. Their dedication to this vision has resulted in raising the profile of Belleville and has contributed to the overall prosperity of the community."
Lisa & Rob's contributions to increasing chemical safety in the workplace, and to the Belleville community are captured in the following story presented at the event:
Lisa and Rob Hallsworth - Safety, Simplified
Here in Belleville, a quiet revolution has been taking shape — one rooted in chemistry, courage, and a visionary drive to make the world safer for everyone.
This year’s Belleville Chamber of Commerce Cornerstone Visionary recipients, Lisa and Rob Hallsworth, are more than Rillea Technologies' co-founders and SDS RiskAssist creators. They are a dynamic duo of relentless problem-solvers who saw a critical gap in chemical safety — and refused to ignore it.
What began as a love story during the Calgary Winter Olympics has since evolved into a life’s mission: to make workplaces across Canada — and beyond — safer, innovative, and more sustainable.
From Olympic Beginnings to Entrepreneurial Bravery
Lisa grew up on a farm in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, where grit and resilience were second nature. Gifted in math and physics, she pursued chemical engineering at the University of Waterloo. During a co-op placement with Petro-Canada in Calgary, she met Rob — an engineer working in the oil sector during the height of the 1988 Winter Olympics.
It was a whirlwind courtship of Rocky Mountain ski adventures, Olympic spectacles, and shared ambition. Just five weeks after they met, they were engaged.
Their careers took them from Calgary to Toronto and, eventually, to Belleville in 1992 — a stop that was meant to be temporary but became the launchpad for something revolutionary.
Seeds of a Safer System
Lisa spent over two decades in chemical manufacturing, managing hazardous materials for global companies like DuPont. She made a career from understanding risks in chemicals used in everyday products and dissecting complex safety systems meant to protect workers and emergency responders.
Then, one question changed everything. While giving a tour of a highly hazardous storage facility she’d helped design, a firefighter gestured toward a three-inch-thick binder and said, “It would be great to know what’s actually here if we’re ever called to a fire.”
That binder — thick with policies and technical jargon — wasn’t helping anyone in a real-time emergency. At that moment, Lisa realized something simple but radical: Safety shouldn’t be complicated. It should be clear. Immediate. Actionable.
And so, that’s when the seed for change was planted.
Pivoting for Impact
The binder is what many remember from any WHMIS training program and once you read the Safety Data Sheets (SDS) that applied to the workplace, you expected this met the compliance requirement for occupational health & safety mandates. The process might be more rigorous in environments directly involved with chemical agents but even common cleaning products can also be dangerous if misused. Products also change and WHMIS training is out-of-date as soon as that happens or a new product comes into the workplace.
The risk was real but maintaining compliance by updating the SDS binder, or to have employees review updates and keep up with the information seemed insurmountable with all the human variables involved.
Lisa and Rob knew they had to make it easy and in 2016, they co-founded Rillea Technologies and launched SDS RiskAssist — a smart, scalable software platform designed to make chemical safety accessible and actionable.
It simplifies the unthinkable: managing anywhere from 100 to tens of thousands of client SDSs and translating them into real-time, plain-language summaries called “SafetySnaps™.”
Rooted in four values — ease of use, transparency, rigour, and automation — the system is far more than a database. It’s a philosophy that is transforming how organizations understand and manage chemical risk.
For Belleville’s GH Manufacturing, that transformation came just in time. A global client had requested PFAS reporting — a notoriously complex class of “forever chemicals” used in everything from firefighting foam to dental floss. SDS RiskAssist stepped in immediately.
“SDS RiskAssist quickly identified any PFAS exposure in our operations,” says Kim Egan of GH Manufacturing. “We were able to ensure compliance and confidently respond to our customer. The platform has proven itself once again as an essential tool for success in today’s complex regulatory environment.”
For Canadian businesses like GH Manufacturing, the stakes are high. Health Canada now mandates PFAS reporting; without tools like SDS RiskAssist, meeting those requirements can be overwhelming and time-consuming.
A Visionary Model That Scales
Today, SDS RiskAssist is used in laboratories, municipalities, dental and medical clinics, construction companies, manufacturers, airports, marine vessels, colleges, food and petfood manufacturers, care homes, correctional facilities, HVAC service groups and research centres nationwide. From managing 18,000 unique products for the Canadian Food Inspection Agency to helping local suppliers like GH Manufacturing identify chemical risks in real time, the Hallsworths have built a platform that scales without losing its human focus.
With AI and automation at its core, SDS RiskAssist is continuously evolving to meet new compliance needs. Clients benefit from a platform that is not only innovative but also deeply practical.
“We appreciate the ease of use, support, and the depth of expertise built into the SDS RiskAssist platform,” Kim adds. “It’s this kind of innovation that helps companies like ours stay proactive and competitive.”
Changing the Safety Conversation
For Lisa, this journey has never just been about data. It’s about health, longevity, education, and awareness. At the heart of her ambition has been an urge to help people understand what they breathe, touch, or clean with and how to protect themselves.
Lisa and Rob have been unwavering in their stance: No worker should be harmed because safety information was too hard to find, read, or understand.
The Hallsworths have delivered presentations at national safety conferences, hosted educational webinars, and collaborated with organizations like the National Research Council of Canada. In 2021, SDS RiskAssist was accepted into the World Safety Congress, where their pitch — categorized under Long-Standing Challenges — was praised for its clarity, ingenuity, and ability to solve one of workplace health and safety’s most persistent issues.
“We’ve all been taught to see the benefits of chemicals, but not the risks,” Lisa says. “Our job is to help people pause and ask, ‘Is this safe?’”
The belief that safety should never be a luxury is what drives everything they do.
Grounded in Belleville
Despite their national impact, Lisa and Rob remain proudly rooted in Belleville. It’s here they raised their children and found a community of innovators, allies, and early adopters — from Loyalist College and RCI, to innovation centres and local businesses like GH Manufacturing.
“We didn’t plan to end up in Belleville,” Rob reflects. “But when we looked at what mattered — quality of life, opportunity, connection — Belleville checked every box.”
And for the Hallsworths, it’s where a global legacy began.
A Lasting Legacy
On behalf of the Belleville Chamber of Commerce and the greater Bay of Quinte region, we are honoured to recognize Lisa and Rob Hallsworth as the 2025 Cornerstone Visionary Recipients for turning chemistry into compassion and transforming innovation into impact.
Their legacy isn’t just software. It’s safer workplaces. Healthier communities. And futures made possible by people who dared to ask better questions.
And, it’s only just beginning.
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Story by Ashley Foley, Foley Communications & Consulting.
