Chadwick Burns

Chad Burns serves as Executive Vice President of Environmental, Health, and Safety (EHS) and Sustainability for Harvard, where he leads the company’s enterprise-wide strategy to protect people, strengthen operational performance, and advance sustainable business practices.

With nearly 30 years of experience in safety and health leadership, Chad has built and transformed EHS organizations across complex, multi-site businesses. Before joining Harvard Maintenance in 2018, he held leadership roles with The Walt Disney Company and Tyson Foods, where he led initiatives focused on safety governance, organizational transformation, assurance, training, and leadership development.

At Harvard, Chad has advanced the company’s EHS strategy, systems, and performance by aligning management practices with ISO 45001 principles, strengthening audit and inspection processes, and increasing focus on critical risks and employee engagement. This has established an industry-leading approach to occupational health and safety and contributed to an injury rate less than half the average of peer organizations. He also played a key role in developing and executing Harvard’s Pandemic Response Plan and broader COVID-19 response.

Chad is a Certified Safety Professional (CSP) and holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. His contributions to the profession have been recognized through the ASSP Central Florida Chapter Safety Professional of the Year award, the United Safety Council Individual Safety Achievement Award, and Avetta’s 2026 Sustainability & ESG Impact Award.