Dean Hargis is currently retired from a 37 year-long career as a professional environmental scientist and senior business manager. In addition to his appointment to the Board of Grand Piano Series, Dean currently serves as Chairman of the Board of Castaic Investors, LLC, an investment partnership with over 200 members and $40 million in assets. Originally trained as an ecologist and atmospheric scientist, Dean maintained his role as a technical specialist throughout his career. As his career progressed, his responsibilities grew to include engineering project management, business management, and business development for multiple world-renowned international consulting engineering firms. This included positions as Senior Scientist and Senior Vice President for Dames & Moore Group, Vice President at URS Corporation, and President of NewFields International. His responsibilities included simultaneous business management of international business units with professional staff in several countries, program manager of multi-million dollar scientific and engineering contracts, and personal performance of scientific investigations as principal investigator. A prolific investigator, writer, and technical presenter, Dean personally completed over 600 publications, technical investigations, and environmental studies as principal investigator and senior technical manager. Recognized as a technical expert in many countries, Dean was routinely asked to serve in a peer review capacity for technical journals, including the International Society of Petroleum Engineers.

Through his professional career, Dean covered a broad geographic area and was consistently highly regarded by his clients and local communities. His efforts spanned most of the United States west of the Mississippi River (and a couple of east of the river, a total of 25 states including Alaska and Hawaii), and 26 other countries on five continents. In addition to his technical environmental studies, Dean’s investigations commonly involved close communication with affected communities to identify specific social needs and sensitivities. These efforts were incorporated into the more traditional technical environmental studies to refine specific engineering and construction recommendations resulting in socially responsible and environmentally sustainable programs. Dean’s combination of technical skill, management effectiveness, and community sensitivity led to numerous awards and commendations throughout his career from environmental organizations, major industrial clients, multilateral banks, several agencies of the U.S. federal government, and other government entities.

Though lacking formal music training, Dean loves music. As an active listener, he was immediately captivated by the quality of Grand Piano Series performances. Once he learned about the community outreach activities and plans for further contributions in support of young artists, he had to help. Dean is committed to using his business acumen and communication skills to help Grand Piano Series achieve its goal to enrich the Southwest Florida community.