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Carol Sawyer Parks, president and CEO of the real estate development company Sawyer Enterprises, has been instrumental in reshaping Boston’s architectural, cultural, and educational landscape. She developed the W Boston Hotel and Residences, the Niketown building on Newbury Street, and other significant structures. Parks embarked on a career in real estate development in Los Angeles before returning to Boston to assist with the family businesses of her father, taxi and transportation magnate Frank Sawyer. She successfully shifted their focus from transportation to real estate development. Parks also has engaged in many community activities as chair of the board for the Carroll Center for the Blind, director of Newton Country Day School of the Sacred Heart, trustee of the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary, and director of the 100 Club of Boston, which raises funds for the families of fallen firefighters and police officers. Parks was featured in the 2011 book Boston, Inspirational Women by Bill Brett and Kerry Brett and has been named one of the 25 Stylish Bostonians by the Boston Globe. She received an honorary Doctor of Commercial Science degree from Suffolk University in 1982.