Meet Steve Hudson – Safer Buildings Coalition Outreach Manager

Posted on June 17, 2019
Safer Buildings Coalition Team Member Profile

Authorities Having Jurisdiction (AHJs) play crucial roles in enforcing fire codes and are key members of the Safer Buildings community. Safer Buildings Coalition’s Outreach Liaison, Steve Hudson, is responsible for identifying AHJs in communities in which the Coalition hosts an event – such a seminar – and inviting those state and local code officials to participate. Steve also identifies and reaches out to state and local associations, such as State Fire Marshal groups, AFAA and BOMA chapters, and other groups who would benefit from getting the Safer Buildings message.

“In previous years the burden of AHJ and community outreach was borne by our seminar sponsors,” said SBC Managing Director John Foley. “We heard clearly form our SBC Advancement Work Group that Safer Buildings needed to fund and support this outreach, and we could not have been luckier to have someone with Steve’s skills and experience join us to handle that role.”

Steve has extensive educational and career credentials that make him a valuable member of the SBC team. After graduating from Yale with a degree in administrative science in 1979, he started a 13-year career in government affairs while earning an MBA in marketing from The University of Texas at Austin. Steve entered the telecommunications industry in 1994 as a member of the initial executive team of e.spire Communications, a nationwide developer and operator of metropolitan fiber optic networks. He moved over to wireless visionary Craig McCaw’s Seattle-based Nextlink in 1998 and met SBC Managing Director John Foley there in the summer of 1999. Returning to Texas in 2000, Steve shifted gears again and became coordinator of marketing, education and outreach for the Public Utility Commission of Texas. From 2011 until 2018, he served as real estate community liaison for the Texas Veterans Land Board, a state agency that offers affordable land, home and home improvement loans for Texas Veterans. Steve joined SBC as a consultant in September 2018.

Steve’s role at the Coalition includes reaching out to industry trade associations and helping grow SBC’s jurisdictional database. 

You may reach Steve at (512) 577-2946 or [email protected].

What to ask an AHJ (Authority Having Jurisdiction)?

Chief Alan Perdue, SBC’s executive director, suggests the top three questions to ask an AHJ:

1. Which specific codes and standards does your jurisdiction adopt and enforce as it relates to in-building public safety communications systems?
2. What specific frequencies do the first responders (Fire, Law Enforcement, EMS) utilize within your jurisdiction that need to be included in the in-building public safety communications system design?
3. Who are the frequency license holder(s) for each of the frequencies being required for the in-building public safety communications system, and what is their contact information?