Nicholas Parker

Nick creates ventures and platforms for positive exponential impact. He’s best known for coining and developing the “cleantech” concept, introducing it to the finance and business community in 2002. Under his leadership, Cleantech Group helped create a global innovation ecosystem, mobilizing over $6B in private equity and convening thousands of decision-makers, while serving influential businesses and institutions in Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and North America.  

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From 1993 to 2002, Nick helped create the first transatlantic private equity fund for clean energy and resource efficiency, the first pan-Asian sustainability fund, the first cross-border India fund, and participated in the second ever solar IPO on NASDAQ. In the 1990s, he built and sold one of the first environmental finance firms, advising on capital markets and technology, as well as helping launch several of southern Africa’s first PE/VC funds. In the 1980s, he served two Canadian prime ministers while founding two international youth leadership programs.  

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Today, as Chairman of Parker Impact, Nick makes catalytic investments – presently in solar, carbon-to-value, fintech, energy storage, and artificial intelligence, while advising leading institutions. His latest initiative is CleanAI, founded in 2022, and publicly launched in 2024, to accelerate decarbonization and sustainability through smart digital technology.   

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Nick is currently a Board Member of GRE&T, the innovation arm of Alectra, North America’s second largest municipally owned utility, and the Centre for Social Innovation, the largest social enterprise community in Canada. He resides in Toronto.