R. Scott Parsons
Email: sparsons at deltastrat.com
Parsons moved to Washington, DC, in 1997 to work for newly-elected Congressman Chip Pickering from Mississippi. Parsons began as Mr. Pickering’s Legislative Assistant for agricultural-related issues and was eventually promoted to Legislative Director. After serving Mr. Pickering for two years, Parsons was hired as the Policy Advisor to newly-appointed Commissioner James E. Newsome at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).
Two years later, Commissioner Newsome was named Chairman of the CFTC. Parsons was then named Chief of Staff and Chief Operating Officer for the Commission. At 27 years of age, he became the youngest person to carry the Chief of Staff title at the CFTC and the first COO in the agency’s history. As Chief of Staff and COO, Parsons was responsible for managing the Commission’s daily operations, overseeing a staff of 500 located in five offices across the country, administering the agency’s budget of roughly $100 million, crafting the Commission’s policy objectives and communicating those objectives to all interested parties, including the regulated industry, the Congress, and other regulatory bodies around the world.
Parsons was also the CFTC staff representative to the President’s Working Group on Financial Markets, which is principally comprised of the Secretary of the Treasury, the Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, the Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, and the Chairman of the CFTC.
After six years of CFTC service, Parsons left the federal government to become Executive Vice President at the Managed Funds Association (MFA), a Washington-based trade association representing the interests of hedge funds/hedge fund managers, including Commodity Pool Operators and Commodity Trading Advisors. Parsons’ primary focus at MFA was to create a strategic plan for growing the association’s staff and level of service to its members, as well as to raise the profile in Washington and the overall membership of the group. All of these were accomplished during his tenure.
In July of 2006, Parsons left MFA to form his own government affairs company, Parsons Strategies. With the addition of Jim Newsome, former NYMEX CEO and CFTC Chairman in early 2010, Delta Strategy Group was formed. Delta Strategy Group provides a variety of services for clients including strategic consulting, political analysis, lobbying, and business development. Existing clients include exchanges, energy companies, trade groups, hedge funds, private equity funds, proprietary trading firms, and Fortune 500 companies.


