Michael Parham’s career hasn’t included much downtime.
From starting his career at a corporate law firm in Chicago to taking an in-house job with IBM and, later, with Seattle-based computer vision company RealNetworks, Parham has been busy for decades. He officially left RealNetworks on June 30 after more than 20 years with the company, including the past 10 years as general counsel.
“Before I jump into exploring a new career opportunity, I want to take a little bit of time to catch my breath and focus on projects that are interesting to me. I’ve had a strong background with civic engagement,” Parham says. “I’ll try to provide some assistance on projects related to the Obama Foundation, which is a personal passion of mine. ... It is kind of core to me over the last almost 20 years that I’ve been involved with some element of Barack Obama’s activities.”
Parham is doing some consulting work to help with the transition at RealNetworks, which went private in December when founder and CEO Robert Glaser acquired the company through his affiliate firm, Greater Heights LLC. Parham will serve on the board of the company’s charitable arm, the RealNetworks Foundation. He is also a leader of the Black Boardroom Initiative, which diversifies corporate boards.
The Business Journal spoke with Parham about his next steps, guiding RealNetworks through its recent acquisition and how former President Barack Obama helped him propose to his wife.
See related: Seattle legal exec recalls fundraising for an up-and-coming Barack Obama
About Michael
- Position: RealNetworks former general counsel
- Hometown: Kalamazoo, Michigan
- Residence: Queen Anne
- Education: Undergrad at Michigan State University, law school at the University of Michigan
- Is that a conflict of interest? “I’ve given up on the rivalry.”
- Interests outside of work: Civic engagement; playing or watching tennis; adventures with my wife, Hyeok Kim, and five-year-old son, Marc
- Dream for Seattle: Bring back our Sonics. We need basketball back in our city.
- Favorite books: Any mystery by Walter Mosley
- Favorite performance: "Hamilton"
Day in the life
- Morning: Prepare breakfast and pack a lunch for our son. Work out with my trainer. Start the work day from home or the office.
- Afternoon: Occasional lunch with one of my mentors or mentees. Board member responsibilities. Networking. Always on the phone.Be it a call with parents/family, my mentors/mentees, long-lost colleagues, or recruiting people to any variety of civic/political activities that I’m a part of, I’m constantly on the phone when not in meetings.
- End of the day: Dinner and family time before a round of emails. Later, Netflix or watching tennis.
What’s next after spending more than 20 years at RealNetworks?
For the first time in my career, I am a blank canvas. I’m willing to explore a variety of opportunities. I will look for things that intersect with my experience, personal interests and, quite frankly, have the potential to be impactful. I greatly enjoyed my time here. It’s been quite an experience.
Any particular areas that you’re targeting?
I have a lot of corporate experience, and I would love to translate that into getting more personally involved in corporate board service. I think the experience I have would be a good foundation for that. ... Post 2020, we co-founded an initiative called the Black Boardroom Initiative trying to increase diversity on corporate boards. I would like to continue trying to provide support to that effort.
How has that initiative been going?
It’s going extremely well. The Black Boardroom Initiative had the benefit of being patterned after an existing program, the OnBoarding Women program. Even more, it had the benefit of having organizations that were strong supporters. ... There are probably 130 board seats that are filled with people who are participants in these programs. It’s quite impressive.
How did you end up at RealNetworks?
I started my career at a corporate law firm in Chicago, Chapman and Cutler, for probably five and a half years. A couple of friends from law school had gone in-house to IBM. One day they called me and invited me to lunch and tried to recruit me to come join the team at IBM, which I did. It was a phenomenal experience and the best career decision I’ve ever made because it introduced me to technology law.
And then?
One of those guys, Bob Kimball, ended up leaving Chicago and IBM to move to Seattle. He joined RealNetworks and was the person who recruited me. Bob is now the general counsel, and has been for the past 10 years, of Amazon Web Services.
Why start a new chapter now?
I think the company is slimming down but moving in a very positive direction. I just felt like I wanted to explore new and different things and new challenges. Getting the company through the take-private transaction felt like the appropriate time.
What was it like serving as general counsel through that transaction?
Folks are used to companies going public but not going private. It was intense. It was emotional. There was a lot of negotiating. ... It’s a complicated deal that involved teams of lawyers. Rob had his team of lawyers. The special committee had its counsel. The company management had its counsel. It was a lot of cooks in the kitchen, but fortunately, we reached a positive outcome.
You’ve done a lot of work with the Obamas over the years. What’s your relationship like with the former president?
He weirdly takes credit for me actually pulling the trigger to propose to my wife. He felt it was time. He was very encouraging, shall we say. We got engaged on election night 2012 in Chicago. The Obamas were among the first to greet us and congratulate us.
Are you still close?
(My wife and I) have a five-and-a-half-year-old. A day and a half after he was born, we’re at Swedish and I get a text from a person I had met a few months earlier. The Obama Foundation pre-Covid would have these summits. I went to one of their summits and met the young man who was President Obama’s personal aide. … I get a text from this guy saying, “Hey, the boss heard that you had a baby and wants to be the first to greet you guys.” I call the number back. The aide puts President Obama on the phone, and he’s like, “What’s up daddy.” That made us even more dazed.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
