William Van Rensalier Parker

William Van Rensalier Parker is the Principal of Global Engagement Solutions, LLC and the Director of International Operations for the Venture Capital Institute. His primary focus area is in finding disruptive technologies and assisting the client in bringing it to market.

Mr. Parker retired after 31 years of foreign service with the Department of State with the rank of Minister-Counselor, which is the diplomatic equivalent of Major General.

He has accumulated a vast array of contacts critical to national security interests at the highest levels of government and the private sector. His foreign service and other postings include: Foreign Policy Advisor (POLAD), United States Strategic Command; New Delhi, India; the U.S. Mission to NATO, Brussels, Belgium; Davao, Philippines; Port-of-Spain, Trinidad and Tobago; Abidjan, Ivory Coast; and temporary duty assignments in Qatar, West Africa and numerous others.

Mr. Parker is the Executive Chairman of Sora Defense, a defense firm building the next generation of intelligence communications (IC) platforms, and Executive Director and International Policy Advisor for Blackrail Group, a multi-stage defense investment firm focusing on frontier global resilience.