Governance
We’re committed to the highest standards of integrity in everything we do. We expect our suppliers, partners, and vendors to conduct themselves with the same high standards.
Board Of Directors
Our highest governance body is the Parsons Board of Directors, which consists of the nine members.
Carey A. Smith
Chairwoman, President, And Chief Executive Officer
Carey Smith was appointed to the Parsons’ board of directors in late 2020 and named Parsons’ chief executive officer in July 2021. Prior to this role, she served as president and chief operating officer, responsible for the company’s global business, the profit and loss of the federal and infrastructure markets, and the implementation of the corporate organic growth strategy, which is built on continuous technological innovation. Before joining Parsons, she served in progressive leadership roles at Honeywell, including as president of its defense and space division, as vice president of Honeywell Aerospace Customer and Product Support, and as president of Honeywell Technology Solutions, Inc. Before joining Honeywell, Carey held various positions at Lockheed Martin. She is on the Edison International Board of Directors and the Professional Services Council’s Executive Committee and Board of Directors, and she is a member of the Intelligence National Security Alliance.
George Ball
Former Chief Financial Officer Of Parsons Corporation
George joined Parsons in 1995 and served in multiple roles before being appointed CFO in 2008. He was integral in the company going public in May 2019 and the organization’s transformation into a technology-driven solutions company. He has also served on the boards of directors of multiple public and non-profit organizations. George has served in a variety of financial and operational positions and his strategic counsel enabled Parsons to become an industry leader in the national security and critical infrastructure markets.
Mark K. Holdsworth
Founder and Managing Partner of The Holdsworth Group
Mark Holdsworth is a founder and managing partner of The Holdsworth Group. Before that, he was co-founder and managing partner of Tennenbaum Capital Partners, LLC, and a vice president of corporate finance at U.S. Bancorp Libra, Inc. He serves as vice chairman of EP Management Corporation and served as chairman of International Wire Group. Mark currently serves as chairman of WinCup, Inc., and chairman of Real Mex Restaurants, Inc. He is a national trustee of Boys & Girls Clubs of America.
Committees: Corporate Governance and Responsibility (chair), Executive
Steven F. Leer
Former Executive Chairman Of The Board Of Directors Of Arch Coal, Inc.
Steven Leer is former executive chairman of the board of directors of Arch Coal, Inc. He previously served as chief executive officer and chairman of the board, and before that he was president as well as chief executive officer from the time the company was formed. Prior to Arch Coal’s formation, Steven served as president and chief executive officer of Arch Mineral Corporation, one of Arch Coal’s predecessor companies. In addition, he serves on the boards of Norfolk Southern Corporation, USG Corporation, and Washington University in St. Louis and is a former regent of the University of the Pacific.
Committees: Audit and Risk, Compensation And Management Development (chair)
Letitia A. Long
Former Director Of The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency
Letitia Long has served in senior leadership positions across the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA), the Defense Intelligence Agency, and the DoD for nearly 40 years. She led NGA from 2010 to 2014, reporting to the secretary of defense, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the director of national intelligence. Under her leadership, NGA became the first US agency to adopt open-source software development and collaboration that delivered critical information to first responders during and after natural disasters. She has been awarded the Department of Defense Medal for Distinguished Civilian Service, the Presidential Rank Award of Distinguished Executive, the Navy Distinguished Civilian Service Award, the Presidential Rank Award of Meritorious Executive (two awards), and the National Intelligence Distinguished Service Medal (three awards). In 2011, she received the Charlie Allen Award for Distinguished Intelligence Service from the Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association, was decorated with the Medal of Merit by the king of Norway, was appointed to the rank of chevalier in the National Order of the Legion of Honor of France, and awarded the Commander’s Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland.
Committees: Audit and Risk, Corporate Governance and Responsibility
Ellen Lord
Former Under Secretary Of Defense For Acquisition And Sustainment For The U.S. Department Of Defense
Ellen previously served in the U.S. Department of Defense as Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment from 2017-2021, where she was responsible for all matters pertaining to acquisition; developmental testing; contract administration; logistics and materiel readiness; installations, and environment; operational energy; chemical, biological, and nuclear weapons; the acquisition workforce; and the defense industrial base. She brings more than 30 years of experience in the defense industry, including having served as president and chief executive officer of Textron Systems Corporation, a subsidiary of Textron Inc.
General Darren W. McDew, USAF (Ret)
Retired US Air Force General
Gen. Darren McDew served with distinction in the United States military for 36 years. Throughout his career, he had the opportunity to lead at all echelons, culminating as the commander, United States Transportation Command (USTRANSCOM). As a unified combatant command consisting of all the armed services, he served as the senior uniformed officer responsible for global air, land, and sea transportation and patient movement for the Department of Defense. Darren was commissioned as an Air Force officer in 1982. His journey began as a pilot and continued through multiple operational leadership roles and unique assignments at the White House (military aide to the president), the Pentagon (strategic plans and policy for the chairman of the Joint Chiefs), and on Capitol Hill (chief, Air Force Senate liaison).
Committees: Compensation And Management Development, Corporate Governance and Responsibility
Harry T. McMahon
Former Executive Vice Chairman Of Bank Of America Merrill Lynch
Having spent 32 years in investment banking, Harry McMahon has broad experience providing strategic and financial solutions for corporations and institutions worldwide. This has included leading teams on mergers and acquisitions and corporate finance advisory projects. He previously served as executive vice chairman of Bank of America Merrill Lynch and currently serves as an independent director in both the for-profit and not-for-profit sectors, including California Resources Corporation, where he chairs its Compensation Committee; Cottage Health System; Claremont McKenna College, where he was board chair for eight years; and the Henry R. Kravis Leadership Institute. He also acts as senior advisor and director of G100 Companies.
Committees: Audit and Risk, Compensation And Management Development
M. Christian Mitchell
Former National Managing Partner Of Deloitte & Touche LLP’s Mortgage Banking And Finance Practice
Christian Mitchell was national managing partner of Deloitte & Touche LLP’s mortgage banking and finance practice. Before that, his roles with the firm included regional managing partner for various practices, associate national managing partner for the banking and thrift practice, and partner in the mergers and acquisitions and capital markets practice. He currently serves as a director for Special Value Opportunities Fund LLC; Reis, Inc.; Grandpoint Capital, Inc.; and Western Asset Mortgage Capital Corporation. In addition, he serves as vice chairman of the board of directors of Marshall & Stevens. Christian also serves as chairman and president of the Southern California chapter of the National Association of Corporate Directors (NACD). He is recognized by NACD as a board leadership fellow and was named to the “100 Most Influential People in Corporate Governance” list by Directorship magazine in 2011 and 2012. In addition, he served a two-year term as an accounting fellow for a federal agency.
Committees: Audit and Risk (chair), Corporate Governance and Responsibility, Executive
Major General Suzanne M. “Zan” Vautrinot, USAF (Ret)
President Of Kilovolt Consulting, Inc.
Maj. Gen. Zan Vautrinot is president of Kilovolt Consulting, Inc., a cybersecurity strategy and technology consulting firm. She serves as a director on the boards for Symantec Corporation; ECOLAB, Inc.; the Battelle Memorial Institute; and Wells Fargo. Before retiring, she was a major general in the United States Air Force and served as commander, 24th Air Force and Air Forces Cyber.
Committees: Audit and Risk, Corporate Governance and Responsibility
David C. Wajsgras
Former President Of The Intelligence, Information And Services (IIS) Business (Raytheon)
David Wajsgras has 20 years of experience at the senior executive management level, providing operational, strategic, and financial leadership in both the commercial and defense industries. He most recently served as president of the Intelligence, Information and Services (IIS) business at the former Raytheon Company, now part of Raytheon Technologies, after the merger with United Technologies Corporation, in April 2020. Under David’s leadership, IIS drove digital transformation by challenging traditional defense industry software development tools, culture, and process standards through the implementation of commercial software best practices. He was named to Executive Mosaic’s “Wash100” list of top government contracting leaders for the past six years. He was also selected as WashingtonExec’s Intel Industry Executive of the Year in 2019 and Federal Computer Week’s Industry Eagle award winner in 2018. Previously, he was senior vice president and chief financial officer at Raytheon and directed the company’s overall financial strategy.
Committees: Audit and Risk, Compensation And Management Development
Governance Structure
The board consists of four committees, each with their own charter document. The Audit and Risk Committee and Corporate Governance and Responsibility committees are each supported by two staff committees. Click the + to read more about board and non-board member committees.
Board Of Directors
Governance Structure
The board consists of four committees, each with their own charter document. The Audit and Risk Committee and Corporate Governance and Responsibility committees are each supported by two staff committees. Click the + to read more about board and non-board member committees.
Code Of Conduct
We know the decisions we make affect our business and our communities. Our Code of Conduct leverages our Core Values and industry best practices on our policies and expectations of how to conduct business. We require all employees, consultants, partners/suppliers, and Board members to abide by our Code of Conduct.
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Code Of Conduct For Business Partners
We follow comprehensive business partner, vendor, and supplier vetting and screening processes to ensure parties we do business with share our core values and are vetted, consistent with our obligations under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) and other global anti-corruption laws. We also consider our responsibilities under applicable cybersecurity maturity model certifications (CMMC), anti-corruption laws, and trade and export controls.
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Governance Guideline/Policy
Strong corporate governance addresses the needs of our stakeholders. Our Corporate Governance documents outlines the roles and responsibilities of our Board of Directors and each of its committees.
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Ethics
Integrity is a Core Value and we are committed to ethical practices in everything we do. Our award-winning program ensures that our people engage in and promote ethical behavior and compliance with laws and regulations where we operate. We abide by comprehensive anticorruption policies and procedures, and only work with partners and suppliers that share our commitment to doing business with integrity.
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Information Security And Risk
Information security permeates Parsons culture. We leverage our expertise and technologies applied to protect our customers to our enterprise assets. These processes, systems, and applications are audited and certified by third-party compliance frameworks. In addition, we provide cybersecurity and information security awareness/training.
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Parsons not only provides broad-spectrum information security services and technologies to our clients; we leverage those same services and technologies inside our own company. Security permeates Parsons’s culture and everything that we do. The Parsons Chief Security Officer (CSO) provides reports to the chief executive officer/chairman of Parsons Board of Directors, indicative of the value of information security to the corporation. As such, the board receives quarterly updates through the Audit and Risk Committee.
Parsons’s Security provides leadership in the development, delivery, and maintenance of enterprise information security and risk management programs, which safeguard Parsons' business information, assets, and its supporting infrastructure against unauthorized use, disclosure, modification, damage, or loss. Parsons’s world-class Security Operations Center provides continuous monitoring of information systems to detect and respond to cyber events. Parsons also provides global cyber security awareness/training, including Cybersecurity Awareness Month, online training courses, and interactive discussions on information security.
The Information Security Governance Risk and Compliance (ISGRC) organization has established a Unified Security Control Set (USCS) that defines standard requirements and protections for Parsons’ processes, systems, applications, and information. These controls map directly to multiple security compliance frameworks, including ISO 27001, Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX), DFARS (NIST 800-171), Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC), and stringent privacy regulations, such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA).
Global Human Trafficking Policy
We respect and protect individual human rights and comply with the employment laws in every location in which we do business. All employees are to be provided with safe, secure and humane working conditions and fair wages. Parsons has zero tolerance for forced labor, involuntary servitude, child labor, commercial exploitation, or human trafficking. We expect our subcontractors, suppliers and business partners to uphold these same standards and will not knowingly do business with those who do not.
If you have reason to believe any form of exploitation is occurring on any of our projects, promptly report concerns to the Ethics Hotline or other reporting avenues per the Policy. This policy applies to Parsons Corporation and all Parsons businesses and subsidiaries worldwide, including joint ventures and similar partnerships managed by Parsons.
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