Jeff Parker is managing director of the Parker Family Limited Partnership. He is also the co-founder and retired CEO of CCBN, a web-based information services company, and the founder and managing director of Private Equity Investments, a venture capital firm focusing on start-up and early stage companies. As the founder and CEO of several other successful service companies over the past twenty five years, Jeff brings an operating perspective to The Water Initiative as well as a wealth of financial expertise and an extended network of domestic and international business contacts. In 1980, Jeff founded Technical Data Corporation which he subsequently sold in 1986 to Canadian publishing giant Thomson Corporation. In 1982, he became Chairman and CEO of Business Research Corporation, and in 1983 founded FirstCall Corporation. Under his leadership, Thomson Financial Services (TFS), as the group is now known, became a major provider of proprietary financial information to the investment and corporate communities.
Prior to starting Technical Data, Jeff served as a Vice President and Senior Fixed Income Portfolio Manager at Fidelity Investments. He has also held management positions at Smith, Barney, Loeb Rhoads, and A.G. Becker. In addition to being an active advisor to many early stage financial services companies, he also is a Venture Partner with GrandBanks Capital (Boston), Chairman of the Board of FirstCoverage (Toronto) and a Director of Mainstream Data (Salt Lake City). Jeff is a Trustee Emeritus, Presidential Counselor and a Foremost Benefactor of Cornell where he founded the Parker Center for Investment Research at the Johnson School. An alumnus of Cornell, he earned a Bachelor of Engineering degree in 1965, a Master of Engineering in 1966, and a MBA in 1970.
In 2001, Parker was inducted into the Johnson Graduate School of Management’s Hall of Honor, the Johnson School’s highest award, and was also selected Cornell University’s 2001 Entrepreneur of the Year. Jeff is currently Chair of the Johnson School Advisory Council, and is Co-Chair of the University-wide Entrepreneurship@Cornell (EPE) Program Advisory Council.