Parsons Corporation

Parsons Corporation (Parsons) is an American technology-focused defense, intelligence, security, and infrastructure engineering firm headquartered in Centreville, Virginia. The company was founded in 1944.[2][3]

Parsons Corporation
TypePublic
NYSE: PSN
IndustrySecurity, Defense, Intelligence, Technology, and Critical Infrastructure
FoundedCalifornia, United States (1944 as Ralph M. Parsons Company)
Headquarters
5875 Trinity Pkwy #300, Centreville, Virginia
Key people
Chuck Harrington CEO
Carey Smith COO
George L. Ball, CFO
RevenueUS$ 3.6 billion (2018)[1]

Parsons has more than 16,000 employees across 24 countries.

History
Former Parsons headquarters in Pasadena, California

Parsons was founded by Ralph M. Parsons in 1944.[3] The company delivered electronics, instrumentation, ground checkout systems design, and engineering for aircraft, missiles and rockets during the Cold War.[4] In 1974, Parsons opened the first part of its Pasadena headquarters in Pasadena.[5]

In 2004, a $29.5 million contract was given to both Parsons and Gilbert Southern/Massman Construction to redo a portion of the Escambia Bay Bridge near Pensacola, FL after Hurricane Ivan made landfall and knocked off 58 spans of the original bridge and misaligned 66 other spans. Traffic destined for the bridge was rerouted onto US 90 (exit 17 on I-10) for 2 months while construction was taking place, which caused severe traffic jams. The westbound bridge opened to traffic on October 4, 6 days ahead of schedule, while the eastbound lanes opened to traffic on November 20, 66 days after Ivan made landfall and 27 days ahead of schedule. Both contractors received $1.5 million in bonuses for the early completion.

In late February 2019, Parsons announced the move of its headquarters from Pasadena, California to Centreville, Virginia.[6]

On 8 May 2019, Parsons executed an Initial Public Offering of approximately $500M on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol PSN.[7]

In December 2019, it was announced that Parsons and Leidos Holdings Inc. had earned spots on a $4 billion contract to support the cleanup of a former nuclear weapons site in southern Washington state.[8]

Founder's legacy

In 1961, Parsons founded the Ralph M. Parsons Foundation. The foundation became entirely independent from the company in 1974.[9][10]

Signature projects

Notable Parsons projects include:

Acquisitions
 Parsons Corporation 
 
 
 
 
 
Company founded by Ralph M. Parsons 1944
 
 
 
 
 
 

Sparta, Inc[13]
2011

 
 
 
 
 

Secure Mission Solutions[14]
2014

 
 
 
 
 

Polaris Alpha[15]
2018

 
 
 
 
 

OG Systems[16]
2019

 
 
 
 
 

QRC Technologies[17]
2019

 
 
 

Controversial projects

Iraqi health care centers

Parsons was awarded a contract for a $243-million project to build 150 health care centers in Iraq in March 2004. By March 2006, $186 million had been spent, with six centers complete and accepted by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE);, 135 centers only partly complete; and one was reassigned to another contractor. USACE progressively terminated the contract from September 2005 to March 2006, eventually requiring Parsons to complete a total of 20 centers, with the others to be completed by other contractors. The estimated cost for the completion of the other 121 centers was $36 million.[18]

Parsons and USACE disputed the degree to which the final 20 centers were completed.[19] A report by the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction cited problems, including "high turnover among government personnel... directions... given without agreement from the contractor... program managers' responsiveness to contractor communications, cost and time reporting, administration and quality assurance".[19]

CBOSS Positive train control system

Parsons was contracted in 2011 to implement a custom positive train control system for Caltrain, to be completed before the December 2015 federal PTC deadline mandated by the Rail Safety Improvement Act of 2008.[20] The project, called the Communications Based Overlay Signal System (CBOSS), failed to meet its 2015 delivery date and Caltrain terminated the contract as a result of "non-performance in 2017 after many months of delay and repeated failure by the contractor to correct performance issues."[20][21] After the cancellation of the Parsons contract, Caltrain approved a new contract for an off-the-shelf PTC system from Wabtec Corporation.[20][22]

References
  1. http://www.parsons.com/about-parsons/Pages/financial-highlights.aspx Parsons Financial Highlights
  2. "FAQ". Parsons. Retrieved Mar 2, 2019.
  3. Brown, Heidi. "Rebuilding". Forbes. Retrieved 2018-08-17.
  4. Thumbs up for performance. // Aviation Week & Space Technology, October 14, 1957, v. 67, no. 15, p. 84.
  5. Scheid, Ann; Lund, Ann Scheid (1999). Historic Pasadena, an Illustrated History. HPN Books. ISBN 9781893619012. Retrieved 10 August 2019.
  6. Peltz, James (28 Feb 2019). "Parsons Corp. is moving its headquarters from Pasadena to Washington, D.C., area". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 10 August 2019.
  7. Rubin, Debra (9 May 2019). "In May 8 Stock Offering, Parsons Corp. Nets $500M". Engineering News-Record. Retrieved 10 August 2019.
  8. Cordell, Carten (6 December 2019). "Leidos, Parsons win spot on $4B nuclear material cleanup contract". Washington Business Journal. Retrieved 20 December 2019.
  9. "Ralph M. Parsons Foundation Awards $1 Million Grant to Caltech for New Research Laboratory | Caltech". The California Institute of Technology. Retrieved 2018-06-26.
  10. "Ralph M. Parsons Foundation | CSU". www2.calstate.edu. Retrieved 2021-01-30.
  11. Howard, William E. Billions for ICBM Launching Facilities // Missiles and Rockets, May 11, 1959, v. 5, no. 19, p.13-14.
  12. Packard Reminds Industry of Its Duty — Defense. // Missiles and Rockets, September 5, 1960, v. 7, no. 10, p. 17.
  13. Hubler, David (19 October 2011). "Parsons makes $350M deal to pull services unit out of Cobham". Washington Technology. Retrieved 10 August 2019.
  14. Hoover, Mark (21 April 2014). "Parsons deepens cybersecurity capability through latest acquisition". Washington Technology. Retrieved 11 August 2019.
  15. Erwin, Sandra (21 May 2018). "Parsons acquires Polaris Alpha, seeks bigger footprint in defense, space, intelligence". Space News. Space News. Retrieved 10 August 2019.
  16. Wilkers, Ross (8 January 2019). "Parsons makes another intell-focused deal". Washington Technology. Public Sector 360. Retrieved 10 August 2019.
  17. Censer, Majorie (22 July 2019). "Parsons to acquire QRC". Inside Defense. Retrieved 11 August 2019.
  18. Stuart W. Bowen, Jr. (February 15, 2007), STATEMENT OF STUART W. BOWEN, JR. SPECIAL INSPECTOR GENERAL FOR IRAQ RECONSTRUCTION BEFORE THE UNITED STATES HOUSE OVERSIGHT AND GOVERNMENT REFORM COMMITTEE U.S. CONTRACTING IN IRAQ (PDF), House Government Reform Committee, archived from the original (PDF) on August 29, 2008
  19. "Report details problems with contract for Iraq health centers". Government Executive. Retrieved Mar 2, 2019.
  20. Kyra Senese, Caltain to sign Wabtec PTC contract, Railway Age
  21. Caltrain PTC Program Status & Wabtec Contract Award, Caltrain
  22. Caltrain Receives $18.7 Million Grant for Positive Train Control Project, Caltrain
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