Steven Lloyd Parker

Steve Parker is a Managing Director at Laurel Strategies. An experienced advisor, Steve brings to Laurel a proven record of excellence under varied, unstructured, and adverse conditions around the world, leveraging over two decades of executive leadership and program management experience in the US military, the federal interagency, and national nonprofit organizations.

Previously, Steve was an Army Operations and Foreign Area Officer, he has deep experience in change management and in motivating a diverse workforce.

Steve helped launch WorkMerk, a privately-held, software-as-a-service company focused on helping digitize workflow for the deskless, remote, and disconnected frontline workforce.

Steve has worked in Europe, Asia, and the Middle East; in US embassies in Zimbabwe, Djibouti, and numerous other countries across Africa, including service as a United Nations Military Observer, monitoring the cease-fire conditions between Morocco and Western Sahara. A direct advisor to the US Ambassador in Djibouti, Steve helped establish the only permanent US Military installation in Africa, and served as the Aide and Deputy Exec to Africa Command’s first, four-star Commander. He was selected as a White House Fellow and worked in the office of First Lady Laura Bush; then served as a speechwriter for the 35th Chief of Staff of the Army.

Previously, Steve commanded Soldiers from the Army’s famed 10th Mountain Division, Light Infantry; during year-long combat operations in Iraq. After nearly three years as Chief of Operations, Plans and Simulations for Fires Center of Excellence, Steve returned to Washington DC to work for First Lady Michelle Obama and (then Second Lady) Dr. Jill Biden as Executive Director of the White House Veterans & Military Family initiative, Joining Forces. Steve was Senior Advisor to the Africa Center for Strategic Studies and Director of the State Department’s Africa Military Education Program with responsibilities across 25 countries.

He is a graduate of West Point and Yale. An avid mountain biker, Steve lives in Arlington, Virginia with his wife and their 3 sons. His daughter Zoe is an Environmentalist in Austin.