You wouldn’t be reading this blog post if it weren’t for Liam Parrent. As Digital Marketing Associate at Luminex, his role includes publishing our online content and developing new functionality for our website. The Michigan native joined Luminex in 2017.
Q: What are your responsibilities at Luminex?
A: I handle anything web-related — updating the content on the customer-facing website as well as our internal website, sending out email marketing, and managing social media content. I also do web development for some of things that you see on the internal and external websites.
Q: What kinds of things live on the internal website?
A: Luminex uses an intranet that gives us anything from corporate announcements and our internal Salesforce tool to human resources information and documents for branding guidelines.
Q: What did you do before this?
A: I’ve worked in a bunch of different industries — insurance, employee benefits, and HR — doing a lot of different things, from marketing to underwriting to web development. I really wanted to up my game in web development, so I attended a web developer bootcamp that ran for about 8 months at Austin Community College. It’s amazing how I’ve been able to put to use so many things that I’ve done over the years here in my role at Luminex. It’s made it so much more fulfilling and enjoyable.
Q: What drew you to Luminex?
A: I didn’t know a lot about Luminex except that they were a local biotech company. When I looked into them and learned about the molecular diagnostics and how they were helping patients, that really piqued my interest. The people who work here are some of the smartest and best people I’ve ever worked with in my career.
Q: If you could solve any clinical or genetic challenge, what would it be?
A: I have a personal interest in regenerative medicine because it can solve anything from transplants to genetic diseases or conditions. This one advance would address a wide range of medical problems. It’s amazing to think that in the next 10 years this could be a reality.
Q: If you weren’t at Luminex, where would you be?
A: I would probably be a sports broadcaster. I had originally gone to Eastern Michigan University to get into radio and TV, and I’ve been interested in sports since I was a young kid. Even though I’ve been in Texas for 10 years now, I still follow the teams from back home: the Lions, Redwings, Pistons, and Tigers.
Q: What is something about you that no one at Luminex knows?
A: About four years ago I tried out to be on the “Sports Jeopardy!” TV show. I’ve been following sports since the early ’90s and have all this weird, accumulated knowledge. I drove up to Dallas to try out, along with 200 other people all packed into a hotel banquet hall. My wheelhouse was the major sports, so I did well on those questions. But then they started asking obscure questions about surfing and horse racing. I didn’t make it to the next round, but it was a cool experience.
Q: What is your favorite thing to do in Austin on the weekend?
A: I love the live music scene. My wife and I have a tradition of attending the Austin City Limits festival each year. Two of my favorite performers have been Gary Clark Jr. and Jack White.
