Parisa Jalili is The Second City’s Chief Operating Officer. Focusing on the intersection of creative and business, she designs, implements, and drives efficient systems and processes in an environment where laughs are respected, creativity is celebrated and the ensemble comes first. In her role, she strives to honor the legacy that has made The Second City a legendary institution while advancing the organization to the next level of growth and innovation across its stages and classrooms as well as with its corporate partners. Her career experience is deep and expansive, having developed management process frameworks, metrics, and tools for global sales, operations, support, and customer success teams in her previous roles at Verizon, EdTech Institute (formerly Sage Group), APT, and Midwest Communication Technologies. Her long-term clients included Comcast, AT&T, Verizon, Century Link, and Frontier, each of whom she collaborated with to formulate unique and innovative solutions that focused on technical and professional development. Originally from the Bay Area, she graduated from the University of California Irvine with a degree in Cognitive Sciences. Her co-workers say she’s funny, and, for better or for worse, she chooses to believe them.