Christopher G. Parente

Christopher Parente is Managing Director of Strategic Communications Group (Strategic), a technology public relations agency with offices in Silver Spring, Maryland and Tysons Corner, Virginia. Strategic’s expertise is focused on providing integrated communications and business development consulting to clients in three related but distinct areas -- technology, telecommunications, and professional services. Strategic’s clients are leading technology companies serving the government and commercial markets, and include companies such as Americom Government Services, an SES Global Company (Paris, Luxembourg and Frankfurt Stock Exchanges: SESG), Convera (NASDAQ: CNVR), Tellabs (NASDAQ: TELB), BearingPoint (NYSE: BE), and UltraDNS.

Prior to joining Strategic, Parente served as senior communications manager for VeriSign Inc., with its Naming and Directory Services group. He was responsible for the development and implementation of VeriSign’s communications strategy related to VeriSign’s management of the .com and .net gTLD’s and the operation by VeriSign of two of the root servers for global Internet connectivity. Prior to VeriSign, he held the position of vice president of corporate communications for Advertising.com, a leading Internet advertising network located in Baltimore, MD. One of the most prominent success stories in the greater Washington/Baltimore technology market for 2004, Advertising.com was acquired by Time Warner’s AOL division in a $435 million all-cash transaction. Parente also ran marketing and investor relations for the broadband Internet service provider DSL.net.

For four years, Parente held a variety of positions with the Times Mirror Inc. publishing company, serving as a senior manager for their electronic political publications. He also possesses an extensive wireless telephony background, having worked as a marketing manager at the Cellular Telecommunications Internet Association in Washington, DC.

Parente holds a B.A. in Political Science from the University of Connecticut, and a M.A. in Public Communication from The American University in Washington, DC.

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