The Theodore Edson Parker Foundation is pleased to announce the appointment of Luis M. Pedroso as a new trustee for the foundation. Mr. Pedroso has served as a senior advisor to the Foundation since 2007.
An immigrant from the island of Sao Jorge, Azores, Pedroso arrived in the US in 1969 and graduated from Lowell High School in Lowell, Massachusetts. Four years after his high school graduation, he founded his first business, Qualitronics, which was sold in 2000. He returned to the electronics contract manufacturing industry in 2004 as cofounder and president of Accutronics, Inc. in Chelmsford, MA.
As a respected business owner, philanthropist and caring and committed member of the Portuguese community in Lowell, he is the co-founder of the Saab-Pedroso Center for Portuguese Studies and Research at UMass Lowell (2013), the Portuguese American Scholarship Fund, an endowed fund at the Greater Lowell Community Foundation (2004), and the Helio and Amelia Pedroso Endowed Chair in Portuguese Studies at UMass Dartmouth (2002).
Mr. Pedroso has received numerous awards for his philanthropic contributions, including an honorary degree from UMass Dartmouth (2005), the Title of Commander of the Order of Prince Henry from the Portuguese President Cavaco Silva (2007), the George L. Duncan Award for Excellence from Enterprise Bank and Trust (2008), and the Distinguished Alumni Award from Lowell High School (2008).
The Parker Foundation was established in 1944 under the will of Theodore Edson Parker, of Lowell, Massachusetts. Since the late 1980’s, the foundation has focused its grantmaking in Lowell, which is home to the second largest Cambodian-American population in the United States. The Parker Foundation board includes Newell Flather (president), David W. Donahue, Jr. (treasurer), Karen Carpenter, and Sophy Theam. Philip Hall of GMA Foundations serves as the Foundation’s long-term administrator and provides staff support with his colleagues Chaletta Huertas and Hannah Blaisdell. In 2015, the Foundation made grant payments of $1,041,648 in charitable contributions.