Kevin K. Parsons
Director of Innovation and Transformation
Northrop Grumman Corporation
BSAAE 1996
"My experience at Purdue taught me that I am frequently capable to accomplish more than I think I can - and equipped me with tools to do so. The combination of the solid educational foundation and the opportunities for growth, leadership and fun through student organizations helped start me on a great path personally and professionally."
Kevin Parsons is director of Innovation & Transformation, leading multiple change initiatives at Northrop Grumman and driving strategic value creation through innovation. Parsons works closely with executive leadership and employees to develop environments and capabilities that will help solve today’s challenges, develop tomorrow’s breakthroughs, and transform corporate culture for long-term success. Examples include corporate maker spaces, team-based competitions, crowdsourced training, and “think tank” sessions. This unique role sits at the intersection point between traditional corporate R&D, product development, business development, process improvement, organizational effectiveness, employee services, communications, and business operations. Through holistic thinking from this perspective – and bringing in diverse perspectives from all levels of the organization – Parsons and his team are challenging how we work, how we think, how we lead, how we design, how we build, and how we interact across organizational lines – from remote collaboration to remote sensing, from business processes to alternative workspaces, from rapid prototyping to employee experience.
Prior to his current assignment, Parsons held positions of increasing responsibility across multiple space mission areas with a broad range of customers, including the US DoD, US intelligence community, NASA, NOAA, and international partners. He was the business development lead for the geospatial intelligence systems and civil systems mission areas. In these roles, he was responsible for customer engagement, competitive positioning, concept development support and capture leadership for science, weather and intelligence missions. Parsons is also an experienced project manager, which includes a satellite development program he led from award to launch and initial operations. Further experience includes program acquisition leadership (RFP development, source evaluation board), space mission design and engineering, system-of-systems architecture analysis, and spacecraft systems engineering.
Parsons earned a bachelor’s degree in aerospace engineering from Purdue University and a master’s degree in aerospace engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Parsons currently serves as Chairman for the Industrial Advisory Council for the School of Aerospace Engineering at Purdue University. He is the recipient of several awards, including Purdue’s Outstanding Aerospace Engineer, Northrop Grumman’s Project Technologist of the Year and the TRW Chairman’s Award for Innovation.
Parsons resides with his wife and 3 children in Hermosa Beach, CA..