John Parkinson

John Parkinson is the Managing Director of ParkWood Advisors LLC. John has over 35 years experience in information and related technologies and over 20 years experience as a consultant on business and technology strategy to many of the world’s largest businesses.

Previously he was a Senior Vice President and the Chief Technologist for Capgemini’s Americas Region. At Capgemini he was a member of the Group’s Office of the CTO, developing strategy and setting direction for Capgemini’s portfolio of Technology Consulting offers, promoting Technology Innovation, working with early adopter clients and influencing career and competency models for Capgemini’s technology consultants. He was also a member of the firm’s North American business strategy working group.

Prior to joining Capgemini in 2001 he was a Senior Partner in the Strategy & Corporate Development Group at Ernst & Young LLP and the Director for Innovation and Strategy for E&Y in the Americas Region. He joined E&Y in the UK in 1985 and moved to the USA in 1991. John has a BS in Mathematics (with minors in economics and behavioral psychology) and an MS in Information Sciences, both from Exeter University, UK. He has been involved with the information technology (IT) business since 1969 and has worked in virtually all roles within IT from programmer to general manager of a software house. An example of his work is included in the Computerworld-Smithsonian collection.

He has written or edited five books on information systems development and has contributed over 40 papers to conferences and journals. He writes a bi-monthly column – “Strong Signals” – for CIO Insight and is a member of their editorial advisory board. He is a frequent speaker at international meetings on Innovation, eCommerce; technology strategy; emerging technologies and related topics.

John is a board member for GTA Inc., the private holding company providing telecommunications services on the island of Guam and an advisory board member for InSORS Communications and TAP.TV, innovative technology start up companies based in Chicago.

In 2003, John was named by Global Consulting News as one of the world’s 25 most influential consultants. In 2004 he was named as Co-chair of the ITAA Committee on RFID and the Chair of the ITAA Task Group on Public Policy Formulation for RFID. In January 2005 he was named as one of the Computerworld 100 Leaders in IT.