Hon. Franklin Parker Brings Wide-Ranging Expertise to 2024 Navy Summit

Who Is Franklin Parker?

The Honorable Franklin Parker is a federal, legal and business powerhouse. The executive currently serves as assistant secretary of the Navy for manpower and reserves, directing a team of nearly 2,000 personnel and shaping the policy and programs that impact the more than 800,000 Department of the Navy staff. This position is effectively the “chief people officer” position in the Navy, according to Parker. His work over the course of a 25-year career at law firms, civilian agencies, major defense contractors and the Pentagon has spanned managerial roles, a command of public policy, legal know-how and military acumen.

Parker will close out the Potomac Officers Club’s 2024 Navy Summit in a sure-to-be-enlightening keynote speech on Aug. 15. Come learn from Hon. Parker and have the chance to engage with him directly about important issues facing the Navy.

Public Sector Work

The majority of Parker’s government service has been spent at the Department of the Navy, which he first joined in 2009 as special assistant to the general counsel, with a focus on government contracts and intellectual property. After about three years, he transitioned to the Department of Transportation as its Maritime Administration’s chief counsel, before returning to the DON in Jan. 2016 for his first stint as assistant secretary for manpower and reserve affairs (he is both the 17th and 19th leader to take this position).

He was appointed to his current position in Dec. 2022.

Private Sector Work

Parker cut his teeth as lawyer at a pair of firms in the late 1990s and early 2000s. After maneuvering into nonprofits and senatorial campaigns for a few years, he was then a senior associate at Winston & Strawn LLP, garnering experience in corporate governance and corporate transactions.

Following his seven-plus-year run in the Departments of Navy and Transportation, he returned to industry in 2017 as director and senior counsel for international trade and compliance at BAE Systems’ platforms and services sector. He eventually became the company’s senior counsel for intelligence solutions for three and a half years before rejoining the Navy.

Franklin Parker’s Accomplishments as Assistant Secretary

New Red Sea Combat Awards

In April, Parker sanctioned the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden as awardable locations for combat recognition. Due to approval from Parker — and, in turn, Wash100 Award-winning Secretary Carlos Del Toro — Navy personnel are able to gain the Combat Action Ribbon and “C” and “V” personal decorations, as well as the Air Medal on a Strike/Flight condition, bestowed for longterm flight operations. The Houthi population has reportedly been targeting this area since fall 2023.

Advocating for Increased Recruitment

In December 2023, Parker testified before the House Armed Services personnel subcommittee hearing about the challenges the Navy faces in attracting new recruits and offered potential ways to overcome these impediments, which include that “COVID protocols [that kept schools closed] kept us out of our largest prospective market for two years.” He additionally cited young people’s wariness about the mental health impacts of the military and said that housing, medical benefits and pay would have to be boosted.

Franklin Parker to Keynote 2024 Navy Summit

After a series of riveting talks and panel discussions from Navy luminaries like Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Research, Development and Acquisition Hon. Nickolas Guertin and Assistant Secretary of the Navy (Financial Management and Comptroller) Hon. Russell Rumbaugh, Parker will bring down the house with a closing keynote speech. The Navy Summit will be the last session of Potomac Officers Club’s final service branch-focused event of 2024, after highly successful days devoted to the Army, Air Force and Space Force. POC events are essential spaces for GovCon collaboration and mission focus.

Looking forward to the event, Parker told us: “Our industry partners are vitally important to all we accomplish — whether developing platforms and technologies to enhance our military readiness, delivering services that provide key support functions for our operations and personnel, or furthering our shared mission of service.”

Don’t miss this essential networking opportunity! Represent your company at the 2024 Navy Summit on Aug. 15.