Professional fireworks built on experience, preparation, and people who remain personally involved.

Dan Nelson began working in the professional fireworks industry around 1990, helping produce multiple large-scale displays from barges beneath the Gateway Arch in St. Louis. Those early productions gave him firsthand experience with the coordination, technical planning, and attention to safety required for major public fireworks displays.

Dan later brought that experience to Arizona and became the owner and president of Southwest Fireworks, a family-owned company serving communities throughout the region since 1993. He remains personally involved in show planning, design, site evaluation, client relationships, safety decisions, and field production.

Alongside his work in pyrotechnics, Dan built a career as a commercial airline pilot. He began with America West Airlines and retired from American Airlines in 2019. His aviation background reinforced the preparation, sound judgment, and operational discipline that continue to shape the way Southwest Fireworks approaches every show.

Dan and his wife have two children. Their daughter recently graduated from Arizona State University, while their son is currently attending college and plays an active role in the planning and execution of each Fourth of July season.

With more than three decades in professional pyrotechnics, Dan continues to lead Southwest Fireworks with a hands-on approach: plan carefully, work closely with local authorities, support the crew, and deliver a show worthy of the audience gathered to see it.

Stephen Joy began working in professional fireworks in 1999 alongside his father at Southwest Fireworks. What started as hands-on work with family grew into more than 27 years of experience spanning field production, show operations, crew leadership, training, regulatory compliance, sales, and client relationships.

Stephen previously served as Vice President of Southwest Fireworks for approximately five years. He later stepped away from the industry to spend holidays with his growing family—time that is especially difficult to protect in a business built around major celebrations.

He eventually returned to Southwest Fireworks as Director of Sales & Marketing, bringing both deep industry experience and a fresh operational perspective. Today, Stephen helps develop client relationships, prepare proposals, plan productions, train crews, oversee regulatory requirements, and improve the systems supporting each show from the first conversation through the finale.

Outside of fireworks, Stephen is a small-business operator and systems strategist specializing in improving day-to-day operations and building practical systems that help growing companies scale. That experience influences his work at Southwest Fireworks, where better organization, clearer processes, and stronger communication contribute directly to safer productions and better client experiences.

For Stephen, the work is about more than what happens in the sky. It is about the planning behind the show, the crew responsible for delivering it, and giving every client confidence that the details have been handled long before the first shell is fired.