Blake Parkinson

Blake Parkinson is Head of Engineering at Big Leap Health and a cofounder of Prime Menagerie LLC. He has written software for more than 20 years. Before Big Leap he ran engineering at Two Chairs, where his team built AI products that had to work under HIPAA.

At Edmodo he built core infrastructure while the platform grew from 1 million users to 50 million, and learned several times that not everything that works at the first number works at the second. As CTO of Backbone PLM, he grew engineering from 3 people to more than 30. At four companies he has hired junior engineers and grown them to staff, and the good ones still email him about what they're working on.

On Affirming Antelope, he builds the app and this site from Amanda's MI for Leaders program. He studied computer science and political science at the University of San Francisco, because he couldn't pick one. He once coached a soccer team through an undefeated season, was elected to the Erie Parks and Recreation Hall of Fame for it, and retired into the sunset.