Tracy LaQuey Parker

BY FORREST PREECE

Tracy LaQuey Parker, Senior Vice President of Business Development at Parker Solutions Group, Civic

Leader

1. What’s something about you that not many people know?

I was the first individual to sue an email spammer in a landmark lawsuit in 1997. At the time I owned the domain name flowers.com that got hijacked by an email spammer who was trying to make money and so I decided to fight back.

I contacted the Austin chapter of the Electronic Frontier

Foundation and one of the members was a lawyer who took the case pro-bono. He told me we had to actually determine this person had an address where we could serve papers. I happened to be on a business trip in San Diego where we thought the spammer lived, so I tracked him down (using a paper map I bought at a gas station, no GPS then!) and talked to him in person (but I didn’t reveal my motive; I came up with a sham story for my visit). We then assembled a group of plaintiffs with me being the lead and went all the way to court. I was nine months pregnant on the witness stand at the end. We won the case and became heroes in the Internet world!

2. What was your first job?

My first paid job, when minimum wage was less than $3/hour, if I remember correctly, was working for Chick-Fil-A at the local mall when I was in high school. I was 15 years old, but I lied on the application form and said I was 16. You could do that in the late ’70s because no one would check. I needed money for clothes, so I was very motivated to serve chicken burgers and do dishes. My first “adult” job right out of college was working for NCR as a Unix Systems Engineer.

3. You can have dinner with three people – dead or alive, any time in history— who would they be?

Brené Brown, Steve Martin, and Neil deGrasse Tyson.

4. If you had to pick three musicians for a playlist, who would they be?

Three musicians on a current playlist I have are Le Tigre, KT Tunstall, and Orville Peck.

5. Favorite book and TV show?

Mike Judge’s “Silicon Valley” show (on HBO) made me laugh harder than I have laughed in a very long time. I worked in Silicon Valley in the 1990s and it’s so realistic and close to the bone, it’s kind of scary. Some of my high tech friends can’t watch it. It’s not as funny to them, since it gives them a form of PTSD. It’s an absolutely brilliant parody.

There are so many great books out there, and so many fabulous authors, especially in Austin. Sarah Bird, Lawrence

Wright, and Stephen Harrigan have all written books that I have loved. The book that has had a huge effect on me recently is “Aquanaut” by Rick Stanton. It’s about his life as a cave diver, his stories of discovery, rescue and recovery missions, including the rescue of the Thai soccer team from the Tham Luang cave in northern Thailand in the summer of 2018. It’s an absolutely thrilling book to read.

6. Most powerful movie you have seen?

I think “Contact” starring Jodie Foster was a very powerful movie-watching experience for me. It’s very deep and philosophical, a very well-done, suspenseful movie with great acting.

7. Favorite place in Austin?

I love walking around the University of Texas campus, just love the energy there. There are so many exciting things happening at UT, all the incredible research, the brilliant professors and researchers, and the promising and talented students. We are so lucky to have this incredible university here.

8. What did you want to be when you were growing up?

A meteorologist. As a child I was fascinated by the weather. My father was an airline pilot, and he would bring weather satellite images home for me to look at. This was in the ‘70s when everything was on paper. My father thought that meteorology would be taken over by computers which would enable better predicting so I decided to study computer science in college instead. I still watch the weather on the local news most every night -- it’s the one thing I make sure to watch. My father was right to an extent, computers do a lot of predictive modeling, but you still need people to analyze and interpret the models.

9. Which living person do you most admire?

I admire so many people but at this moment the person I most admire is Volodymyr Zelensky. He’s also on my dinner list (per the other question) but I don’t want to take him away from the important work he’s doing right now. I’ll invite him to dinner in the future.

10. What makes you happy?

I am happiest when I’m hanging out with a lot of fun, interesting, creative, and talented people. I get a lot of positive energy from doing that. There are a lot of amazing people out there, especially in Austin.

11. Best advice you ever received?

There is so much great advice and I’m constantly seeking it out. The advice to embrace being vulnerable and accept that I will never be perfect, that “good enough” is just fine, has been freeing.