Biography
CEO of the European Startup Network
Clark Parsons is the CEO of the European Startup Network, an umbrella organization of nearly 40 European national and regional startup associations. In this role he has been actively supporting current initiatives such as EU Inc./28th regime and the Scale Up Fund. For more than a decade he has also led the Innovate Europe Foundation, an independent think tank advocating for European tech sovereignty and a rapid European defense transition. Clark is also a Venture Partner at United Founders, a community-driven, pan-European VC fund focused on early stage ventures, and a non-operational Partner at iconomy, a digital consultancy in Berlin. He serves on the Advisory Board of ESNA and as Jury Secretary of the annual AUREA Awards. Having worked as a journalist and editor in his native US for his first career, he came to Germany in 1997 and has been a Berliner ever since. Before his current roles he was also a startup founder, business consultant as well as the Managing Director of an Executive MBA program in leadership for the creative industries.