Richard Parsons, prominent Black executive who led Time Warner and Citigroup, dies at 76

Article content

NEW YORK (AP) — Richard Parsons, one of the most prominent Black executives in corporate America who held top positions at Time Warner and Citigroup, died Thursday. He was 76 years old.

Article content

Article content

Parsons, who died at his home in Manhattan, was diagnosed with multiple myeloma in 2015, and cited “unexpected complications” from the disease to curtail his work a few years later.

Financial services company Lazard, where Parsons was a longtime board member, confirmed his death. The NBA, where Parsons was interim CEO of the Los Angeles Clippers in 2014, was among the organizations offering condolences.

Article content

“Dick Parsons was a brilliant, transformative leader and a giant in the media industry, who led with integrity and never shied away from a challenge,” NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said.

Parsons’ friend Ronald Lauder told the New York Times that the cause of death was cancer. Parsons resigned on December 3 from the board of directors of Lazard and Lauder, Estée Lauder, for health reasons. He has been a member of the Estée Lauder Board of Directors for 25 years.

Parsons, a Brooklyn native who started college at 16, was named chairman of Citigroup in 2009, one month after leaving Time Warner, where he helped restore the company’s standing after its acquisition by Internet provider America Online.

He returned Citigroup to profitability after the financial turmoil caused by the subprime mortgage crisis, which turned the economy upside down in 2007 and 2008.

Parsons was appointed to the CBS board in September 2018 but resigned a month later due to illness.

Parsons said in a statement at the time that he was already dealing with multiple myeloma when he joined the board, but “unexpected complications created additional new challenges.” He said that his doctors advised him to reduce his commitments to ensure his recovery.

Article content

Article content

“Dick’s career embodies the finest traditions of American business leadership,” Lazard said in a statement. The company, of which Parsons was a board member from 2012 until this month, praised his “unmistakable intelligence and irresistible warmth.”

“Dick was more than just an iconic leader in Lazard’s history — he was a testament to how wisdom, warmth and unwavering judgment can shape not just companies, but people’s lives,” the company said. “His legacy lives on in the countless leaders he mentored, the institutions he renewed, and the doors he opened for others.”

Parsons was known as a skilled negotiator, diplomat, and crisis manager.

Although he was with Time Warner during its difficulties with AOL, he earned the company’s respect and rebuilt its relationships with Wall Street. He streamlined Time Warner’s structure, reduced debt and sold Warner Music Group and a book publishing division.

He also beat off a challenge from activist investor Carl Icahn in 2006 to break up the company and helped Time Warner reach settlements with investors and regulators over questionable accounting practices at AOL.

Article content

Parsons joined Time Warner as president in 1995 after serving as chairman and CEO of Dime Bancorp, one of the largest thrift institutions in the United States.

In 2001, after AOL used its fortunes as the leading U.S. Internet access provider to purchase Time Warner for $106 billion in stock, Parsons became chief operating officer with AOL CEO Robert Bateman. In this role, he was responsible for the company’s content business, including film and recorded music studios.

He became CEO in 2002 after the retirement of Gerald Levin, one of the key architects of the merger. Parsons was named chairman of Time Warner the following year, replacing AOL founder Steve Case, who also championed the group.

The company’s newly formed Internet division quickly became a liability for Time Warner. The promised synergy between traditional and new media has not materialized. AOL began seeing a decline in subscribers in 2002 as Americans replaced dial-up connections with broadband from cable TV and telephone companies.

Parsons stepped down as CEO in 2007 and as chairman in 2008. A year later, AOL spun off Time Warner and began trading as a separate company, after years of struggling to reinvent itself as a company focused on advertising and content. Time Warner is now owned by AT&T Inc.

Article content

A member of the board of Citigroup and its predecessor Citibank since 1996, Parsons was appointed chairman in 2009 at a time of turmoil for the financial institution. Citigroup has suffered five consecutive quarters of losses and received $45 billion in government aid. Its board has been criticized for allowing the bank to invest heavily in the risky housing market.

Citigroup returned to profitability under Parsons’ leadership, beginning in 2010, and would not post a quarterly loss again until the fourth quarter of 2017. Parsons retired from that position in 2012.

In 2014, he served as interim CEO of the Clippers until Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer took over later that year.

Parsons, a Republican, previously worked as a lawyer for Nelson Rockefeller, the former Republican governor of New York, and in the White House under Gerald Ford. These early periods gave him a grounding in politics and negotiations. He was also an economic advisor to President Barack Obama’s transition team.

Parsons, who loved jazz and co-owned the Harlem Jazz Club, also served as president of the Apollo Theater and the American Jazz Foundation. He has held positions on the boards of directors of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, the American Museum of Natural History, and the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.

Parsons played basketball at the University of Hawaii at Manoa and earned his law degree from Albany Law School in 1971. He is survived by his wife, Laura, and their family.

___

This obituary was written primarily by the late Associated Press reporter Anik Gisdanon, who died in 2020.

Article content