Mr. Andrew J. Parsons, Senior Advisor, The District Management Council

Mr. Parsons currently serves as Director Emeritus of McKinsey and Company Inc., a leading international management consultancy. He joined McKinsey in 1976 in New York, was elected a Principal in 1982 and a Director in 1988 and was on the McKinsey Advisory Council from 2001 to 2004 after his retirement as an active partner. At various times he led the North American Consumer practice, created the Global Marketing practice and founded the E-Marketing initiative. He served clients globally on strategic, organizational and marketing functional issues in the consumer goods and services, retail, marketing services, media and pharmaceutical/medical devices sectors.

During a leave of absence from McKinsey in 1978-9, Mr. Parsons was a principal in setting up and the subsequent sale to Xerox of Kurzweil Computer Products, a pioneer in artificial intelligence and OCR technology. Prior to joining McKinsey, Mr. Parsons was Vice President of Marketing for the Prestige Division of American Home Products. Earlier he had worked in London as an Account Executive for LPE/Leo Burnett.

In addition to serving on Boards/Advisory Boards of public and private companies in the consumer and marketing services fields, Mr. Parsons has been an active investor in and advisor to early stage companies with personal interests including Bio-Technology, Internet-based software tools and applications, Supply Chain Management, Customer Relationship Management, Restaurant/Catering services, and Media digital content management.

Mr. Parsons has an MA from Oxford University and an MBA with High Distinction from Harvard Business School where he was a Baker Scholar and was awarded the George Hay Brown prize for Marketing.

Mr. Parsons is active in various not-for-profit institutions including as a Director of the United Way of NY where he serves on the Executive and Finance Committee, on the Advisory Board of the Salvation Army of Greater NY of which he is a past Chairman, as Trustee of The Watch Hill Chapel Society, and as an elected Councilor of the Watch Hill Fire District.