Rebecca Parsons

Dr. Rebecca Parsons is the Chief Technology Officer—Emerita at Thoughtworks.14 She previously held the position of CTO since 2007.14 As CTO, she was responsible for driving Thoughtworks’ excellence in technology.14 Now, as CTO—Emerita, she has handed over some day-to-day responsibilities, but continues to steer the company's technology strategy and represent Thoughtworks at industry events.14

Parsons joined Thoughtworks in 1999, after working as a researcher and college lecturer in computer science.1 She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science and Economics from Bradley University, a Master of Science in Computer Science from Rice University, and a Ph.D. in Computer Science from Rice University.2 Her research background includes compilers, program optimization, distributed computation, programming languages, theory of computation, machine learning, and computational biology.12

In addition to her work in technology, Parsons is an advocate for diversity and inclusion in the industry, and particularly for increasing the number of women in coding and STEM.13 She has been on the boards of CodeChix, AnitaB.org, and the Agile Alliance, and an advisor to Women Who Code.14 In 2018, AnitaB.org honored her with the Technical Leadership Abie Award.13 She has also co-authored a number of books, including “Domain-Specific Languages,” “The Thoughtworks Anthology,” and “Building Evolutionary Architectures”.14