Sumi Parekh serves as the Executive Director for the Group Effort Initiative (GEI). Prior to her role at GEI, Sumi worked for Los Angeles Mayor Garcetti and served as the Executive Officer to the Deputy Mayor of Economic Development. In this role, she served as a thought partner for the Deputy Mayor, helped to execute the Mayor’s strategies for economic development, and served as a day-to-day manager for the Office of Economic Development staff. She also created Garcetti’s Evolve Entertainment Fund (Evolve), launched in February 2018 to open up professional pathways into film, television, music, and digital media for over 1,000 participants. In June 2021, Evolve was absorbed by GEI.
Sumi was also a Program Manager at the Mayor’s Fund for Los Angeles, a non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to improving life for all Angelenos and the Director of Legislative Affairs and Programs at the Los Angeles Business Council (LABC).
Appointed by Mayor Garcetti, Sumi currently serves as a Commissioner on the nine person Los Angeles City Police and Fire Pension Board. Sumi also serves as a member of Reimagine L.A. County, a coalition of advocates, community organizations and neighbors continuing to push Measure J investments and a board member for LA Collab, an unprecedented effort to connect Latinx talent, executives, and creators to opportunities in the entertainment industry — and double Latino representation in Hollywood by 2030.
Sumi graduated in 2013 from the University of Southern California with a Masters in Public Policy and is a graduate of the University of Texas with a B.S. in Mathematics.
