ALPHARETTA, GA--(Marketwire - Apr 1, 2013) - First Advantage, a Symphony Technology Group (STG) company and the leading global provider of screening analytics and identity solutions, today announced that Mark Parise has been appointed as the company's new Chief Executive Officer and President. In this role, Parise will leverage his background in delivering global information and analytical solutions to accelerate First Advantage's growth and enhance its client experience. Parise succeeds Jack Freker, who has served as CEO of First Advantage since 2011. Freker will work in his new role with the Symphony Technology Group focused on identifying and operating future acquisitions.
Prior to joining First Advantage, Parise had a successful 10-year career with the global marketing information and analytics leader Symphony IRI Group, also a Symphony Technology Group portfolio company, and widely recognized business transformation success. Parise was President of IRI where he served in this role for 5 years and prior to that held a number of senior executive roles in both the US and Europe. Previous to IRI, Parise had a 20-year career in the financial services industry holding general management and senior executive positions in market leading companies including GE Capital, Chase Manhattan Bank and Experian. He graduated from Quincy University with a B.S. in Management, and completed the Executive Leadership Development and Master Black Belt programs at GE.
"Mark Parise is an accomplished global leader with a proven track record, who is focused on client-centric, innovative approaches to driving transformational business success," said Romesh Wadhwani, Chairman and CEO of Symphony Technology Group. "He is highly qualified to lead the new combined company through the next stages of its aggressive global growth strategy."
First Advantage recently combined its business with LexisNexis' resident and background screening services group. The combined company is now the global leader in providing companies a broad range of solutions designed to provide employers and property owners/managers the high-value workforce and tenants they need to succeed and win in the market.
"The newly combined organization has now established itself as the global leader in the screening market, delivering the most extensive platform and the broadest country footprint," said Parise, "I'm very excited to have the opportunity to join this exceptional leadership team and continue to drive innovation and best-in-class solutions to our clients. I would also like to thank Jack Freker who has been instrumental leading the transformation of First Advantage and setting the stage for the acquisition of LexisNexis Screening Solutions.
About First Advantage
First Advantage combines domain expertise, technology solutions and data to create proprietary products and services that organizations worldwide use to make smarter business decisions. First Advantage is the leading global provider of screening analytics and identity solutions. Headquartered in Alpharetta, GA, First Advantage has offices throughout North America, Europe and Asia. More information about First Advantage can be accessed at www.fadv.com.
About Symphony Technology Group
Symphony Technology Group (STG) is a strategic private equity firm with the mission of investing in and being a partner in building great software and services companies. In addition to capital, STG provides transformation expertise to enable its portfolio companies to deliver more value to clients to retain and attract the best talent and to achieve best-in-class business performance. All STG portfolio companies are expected to grow through innovation. STG's current portfolio consists of 12 global companies with combined revenue of approximately $2.5 billion and thousands of employees spread across North America, Europe and Asia. For more information, please visit www.symphonytg.com.