Lucien Parsons

Founding Director
MAVRIC
College Park, MD


Lucien is the Founding Director of MAVRIC (the Mixed/Augmented/Virtual Reality Innovation Center) at the University of Maryland, which is dedicated to helping to develop the ecosystem in the Mid-Atlantic around these enabling technologies. He also is the Chairman of the International Game Developer’s Association, which aims to improve the lives of game developers worldwide.

With 20 years of technology and strategy consulting and 10+ years in video game company management, Lucien has been at the forefront of the move from computer science being the realm of engineers and mathematicians to becoming the primary tool for creative people. His background covers the range from fine arts to programming to education to management, so he is able to clearly translate the requirements of business to creatives, academics, and software engineers and visa-versa. Having bootstrapped startups, run fully funded studios, and worked in and with Fortune 50 corporations, Lucien is uniquely suited to bringing together a diverse set of stakeholders and discovering the common interests and goals between them.

Lucien holds an MBA from The Wharton School (UPenn) in Innovation and an MA from Johns Hopkins SAIS in International Technology Policy.