Brigadier-General S.M. Parsons, CD

Commander 5th Canadian Division

Raised in Newfoundland and Labrador, BGen Mark Parsons joined the Canadian Armed Forces on the 25th of June, 1990 as a member of the Royal Canadian Corps of Signals within the Canadian Army. He has commanded from Troop to Formation level, including 21 Electronic Warfare Regiment and the Canadian Forces Information Operations Group.

His key staff experiences include Senior Staff Officer Strategic Vision and Alignment for Defence C4ISR within Director General Cyber, Director Land Command Information and Army G6 within the Canadian Army headquarters, and Director of the Royal Canadian Corps of Signals.

BGen Parsons is a graduate of the Royal Military College, St-Jean (CMR) with a bachelor’s degree in Space Sciences and has attained three Master’s degrees which include an MBA and an MDS from the Royal Military College, Kingston (RMC) and an MSc from the College of Information and Cyberspace, National Defense University in Washington, DC.

BGen Parsons has deployments with the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) Headquarters in Kabul, Afghanistan in 2007 and with the Office of the United States Security Coordinator for Israel and the Palestinian Authority (USSC) in 2022 as Deputy Coordinator Support and Commander, Task Force Jerusalem (Operation PROTEUS).

BGen Parsons assumed the role of Director General Digital Enterprise Modernization within the Digital Transformation Office (DTO) in July 2023. He is married with two children.