Carey Smith
Chair, President & CEO, Parsons Corp.
Last year was record-breaking for Parsons. In the third quarter, the company reported its highest total revenue, organic revenue growth, adjusted EBITDA and operating cash flow. The revenue increase, driven mainly by 23% organic growth from new and existing contracts, was also boosted by acquisitions of IPKeys Power and Cyber Partners and Sealing Technologies Inc. After the quarter ended, Parsons acquired I.S. Engineers, enhancing its critical infrastructure services in Texas. These successes led to significant shareholder value, with the stock appreciating 35.6% in 2023 and 86.4% since early 2022.
Parsons was also at the forefront of the artificial intelligence revolution in 2023. While AI became more mainstream this year, Parsons has been developing AI solutions for decades to help customers with data ingestion, processing, exploitation, fusion, dissemination and visualization. This year, Parsons continued using AI to transform how its integrated solutions support the national security and global infrastructure markets.
Why Watch
In 2024, Smith and her team are dedicated to supporting Parsons’ customers in global infrastructure and national security. They aim to grow in six key areas: cyber and intelligence, space and missile defense, infrastructure protection, transportation, environmental cleanup and urban development. The team also plans to buy companies with special technology and increase profits. Additionally, Parsons strives to be a leading employer, offering career growth opportunities on impactful projects.
Parsons celebrates its 80th anniversary this year and Smith praised the company’s 18,000-plus employees for their ongoing commitment to innovation and forward-thinking for clients. Throughout its history, Parsons has focused on meeting challenging customer needs, supporting work-life balance for employees, contributing to the communities it serves, and delivering innovative solutions for significant global issues.
“Today, those solutions mean our exquisite national security solutions that operate across all-domain battlespace, with a focus on outpacing near-peer threats; in critical infrastructure, we are pioneering the use of digital technology to build smart solutions, with a focus on solving important societal challenges like protecting our critical infrastructure, enhancing the world’s aviation system, and eliminating emerging contaminants in the United States,” she said. “I look forward to all we’ll do to Imagine Next in 2024, and for the next 80-plus years of Parsons!”
Fun Fact: Smith said she believes in a culture of employee engagement and helping each employee accomplish their career objectives. ”With our diverse, agile, and innovative culture as our foundation, and a true mission-focus in the way we operate, we deliver unique, integrated and operationally relevant solutions for our customers and an employee experience worthy of our talented workforce,” she said.