The Secret to Success? Psychology and Classics

For Louis A. Parks,’95GSAS, ’03BUS, ’12GS, learning is a lifelong undertaking.

A native New Yorker, Louis arrived at Columbia with a keen interest in classics and psychology. 

“The knowledge available through the works and teachings of the great philosophers, statesmen, and writers of ancient Greece and Rome was like a diamond-in-the-rough waiting to be uncovered,” he said. “To be able to cut and polish that diamond at Columbia, with its esteemed faculty and academic resources, was a gift that will last a lifetime.”

Louis earned two Bachelor of Arts degrees. He credits his degree in psychology with helping him to understand what motivates individuals and groups, while his Master’s concentration in the civilizations of ancient Greece and Rome added an extra dimension, illuminating the ways in which successful entities grow and prosper.  

Louis’s Columbia degrees were instrumental to a business career spent primarily on Wall Street in capital markets and investment management. He believes a background in psychology and classics would help business leaders do a better job of acquiring talent and driving cultural and financial success. 

“Early in my career, I observed senior leaders managing by force and unethical behavior rather than by logic and objectivity,” he said.

“Daily displays of anger and bravado masked personal insecurities and led to an unproductive corporate culture at so many Wall Street firms,” he continued. “Studying psychology and the classics enables you to understand individual personalities and situations that in turn lead you to draw rational conclusions and implement successful actions.”

Louis has climbed the career ladder from an institutional trader to senior managerial positions. Early in his career he was a Vice President - Equity Sales Trader at both Merrill Lynch & Company and Morgan Stanley & Company, and later in his career he was Senior Managing Director, Head of Equity Trading and Head of Equity Capital Markets at Raymond James Financial and C.L. King and Associates, respectively. Today, he is a Managing Partner at Tyro Capital Management, a value-based equity hedge fund which invests assets for institutions and high net worth individuals.

Revolutionary changes in the business environment prompted Louis to return to Columbia for an Executive MBA from Columbia Business School.

“Along with the growth of the internet, I saw technology influencing every aspect of our professional and personal lives,” he said. “It was important to get ahead of these trends and apply them to my profession rather than be passed by.”

As firmly as he believes in learning over a lifetime, Louis is equally committed to giving back. In 2000, he established at Columbia the Louis A. Parks Fellowship in Classics in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (GSAS) to support Ph.D. candidates. “I believe in funding students who have an appreciation for the ancient philosophers, their languages, and their civilizations,” he said. 

He has served the GSAS Alumni Association in various capacities: Board of Directors member, Development Committee chair, Annual Fund Chair, president of the Board, and representative to the Alumni Trust Nominating Committee, which he chaired for two years. 

In 2010, Louis received the Dean’s Distinguished Alumni Award for service to GSAS. In 2018, he was named a Columbia University Alumni Medalist in recognition of his distinguished service building Columbia’s community.

A longtime contributor to the GSAS Annual Fund, Louis is also the current GSAS chair for the 1754 Society Participation Drive, a University-wide initiative to encourage other volunteers and donors to include Columbia in their estate plans. It was through a bequest to Columbia in his will that Louis, himself, became a member of the 1754 Society, the legacy society which recognizes individuals who have made planned gifts to Columbia. 

“My wife, Ann, and I want to provide an example to our children to give back to their institutions of learning as well as to their communities during and after their lifetimes,” he said.

In the meantime, Louis’s daughter Kira has undertaken a lifelong learning journey of her own. After earning a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Barnard in 2013 and a Master’s from Columbia School of Social Work in 2015, she pursued a career as a clinician at Mount Sinai Hospital in the heart and lung transplant divisions. At the same time, she established a private therapy practice.  

Louis is proud to share his Columbia bond with Kira, who will enter the executive program at Columbia’s Mailman School of Public Health to earn a Master in Healthcare Administration in fall 2022.