In 2003, Vallerie Parrish-Porter won the Women of Color Technologist of the Year award. At the time, she was responsible for the strategic direction of Hewlett-Packard's (HP) information technology (IT) resources.
Parrish-Porter has held significant positions as a chief information officer and comptroller in Fortune 500 companies, and she was recognized for breaking barriers in a male-dominated industry.
Before the merger of HP and Compaq Computers, she was the vice president of worldwide sales and services for Compaq. There she led strategic development focused on innovative technology and business solutions.
Parrish-Porter was the systems director at Schlumberger for almost two decades.
More recently, Parrish-Porter served as the CEO of the ClearView Management Company until 2020. ClearView is focused on technology strategies, change management, and leadership development.
Previously, she was a senior vice president at Magellan Associates, where she addressed workforce challenges facing chief information officers (CIOs) and other C-level executives.
Parrish-Porter was also the CIO of Embarq Corporation and ran enterprise systems after serving as the vice president of information technology services for Sprint Nextel.
Embarq served customers in 18 states and provided data and wireless services. It was the local telephone division of Sprint Nextel until 2006 when it became an independent company. Embarq had approximately 18,000 employees.
Parrish-Porter earned an MBA from the University of Miami and a bachelor's degree in accounting from Southern University and A&M College in Baton Rouge.
Read about other technologists of the year:
