James Souza '74

President and CEO, Pyro Spectaculars

Major: Business Administration 

One would expect UP alumnus Jim Souza ’74, president and CEO of one of the world’s largest fireworks display companies, to be a very busy man on July 4—which indeed he is. Pyro Spectaculars, founded by his dad Robert in 1979, produces more than 400 Fourth of July fireworks displays each year around the United States. That, however, is a drop in the bucket when you consider the 1,500 fireworks events his company boasts throughout the world in a typical year.

Jim likes to joke about coming to the University of Portland “because I applied too late at Notre Dame,” but he credits his years on The Bluff for his openness to working with people and cultures around the globe. “Fr. Waldschmidt and the Salzburg Program really opened my eyes,” he says now. “To travel is to learn, and I thank Wally for helping me see that.”

Headquartered on an old military weapons storage facility in Rialto, Calif., Pryo Spectaculars now has regional offices around California and in Spokane, Wash., New York, and Hawaii. Disney World was their original bread-and-butter client, and over the years Jim has worked with Macy’s, the FIFA World Cup, the Olympics, Six Flags, the 1976 U.S. Bicentennial, the Ronald Reagan inauguration, World Wrestling Entertainment, the Rose Bowl’s annual Americafest, the movie Apocalypse Now, bands like Pink Floyd, The Who, and the Rolling Stones, the Hong Kong Tourist Association, and many more.

A lucky man, Jim Souza, whose passion for fireworks artistry is the foundation of his family business’ tremendous success.