Abbreviated Biography

Dan Hughes has been an active health and safety professional and emergency responder since 1986, working all over the world to create, implement, and oversee industrial safety programs.

Mr. Hughes started his career at a petrochemical facility (1980) as a laborer and process unit operator. During his 15-year career at the 180,000-barrel-per-day oil refinery and adjacent chemical plant, he worked his way up from laborer/forklift driver to Fire and Safety Specialist, Hazardous Materials Specialist, Firefighter\EMT and Rescue Technician. It was here that he learned the importance of proper health and safety oversight in the workplace.

After being laid off from the California petrochemical facility, Mr. Hughes started a safety and emergency response consulting business, gaining experience in surface mining, new industrial construction, and demolition. He also worked with contractors to provide quality safety and health training.

In 2001, Parsons hired Dan to complete a turnkey construction job in Washington. He later transferred to Indiana to support and oversee the construction of a new project. As the Lead Senior Safety Specialist for the construction, systemization, start-up, operation, decontamination and closure of the Newport Chemical Agent Disposal Facility (2001-2009), Mr. Hughes worked closely with program managers and workers to safely remove the nerve agent VX from the facility and remediate the site to its natural state. NECDF earned the OSHA VPP Star.

Upon successful completion of the Newport project in 2010, Mr. Hughes joined the Parsons Home Station Military Operations in Urban Terrain (HSMOUT) contract as the program Health and Safety Manager. In this capacity, he created and implemented multiple health and safety plans, preventing lost-time injuries, and reducing client costs. HSMOUT was awarded the National Safety Council Perfect Record Award 5 years in a row.

In 2012, Parsons assigned Mr. Hughes as the Sector HSE Manager for the Mission Support and Services Sector of the I&E Division in Parsons Government Services. This position allowed him to implement safety programs and safety training to multiple program managers, the Sector Manager, and the Global Business Unit Safety Director.

Mr. Hughes was the initial Program Safety Manager for the Antarctic Infrastructure and Modernization for Science (AIMS) program at McMurdo Station, Antarctica. He managed the OSH program for construction as the National Science Foundation (NSF) facility is updated and modernized.

In addition to his other long-term projects, Mr. Hughes volunteered to take two short-term positions with Parsons. His first assignment was a five-week mission to Haiti following the earthquake in 2010. He worked closely with local authorities to safely recover and repatriate the bodies of 66 Americans under a NAVFAC Global Contingency contract at the direction of the US State Department. His second voluntary position was in 2013-2014 to be on the Libyan Chemical Weapons Destruction Program as the OSH Manager in country. Additionally, Mr. Hughes acted as the OSH Manager for a corporate sponsored assignment to work with Bridges to Prosperity for a ten-day operation building a 40-meter suspension bridge in Panama in 2017.

Mr. Hughes most recently served Parsons Federal Missile Defense and C5ISR Markets as the Market Safety, Health, and Environmental Director. Dan has extensive experience working on EM 385 job sites and overseeing Army Corps of Engineers projects as recently as 2017-2021.

Mr. Hughes retired from Parsons after 21 years of service in February of 2022.