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

NEW YORK (AP) — Richard Parsons, one of America’s most prominent black business executives who held top positions at Time Warner and Citigroup, died Thursday. He was 76.

Parsons, who died at his home in Manhattan, was diagnosed with multiple myeloma in 2015 and several years later cited “unforeseen complications” of the disease as a reason for cutting back on his work.

The financial services company Lazard, where Parsons was a long-time board member, confirmed his death.

David Zaslav, the president and CEO of Time Warner’s successor Warner Bros. Discovery, remembered Parsons as a “great mentor and friend” and a “tough and brilliant negotiator who always strived to create something that was mutually beneficial to both sides win”.

“Everyone who had the chance to work with him and knew him saw this unusual combination of great leadership with integrity and kindness,” Zaslav said, calling him “one of the great problem solvers this industry has ever seen.”

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

Parsons, a Brooklyn native who started college at 16, was named chairman of Citigroup in 2009, a month after leaving Time Warner Inc., where he helped restore the company’s reputation following its much-maligned takeover by the Internet provider America Online Inc. to restore.

He led Citigroup back to profitability after the financial turmoil caused by the subprime mortgage crisis that upended the economy in 2007 and 2008.

Parsons was appointed to CBS’ board of directors in September 2018, but resigned a month later due to illness.

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

“Dick’s storied career embodied the best traditions of American business leadership,” Lazard said in a statement. The company, where 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 could 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 remained at Time Warner despite the difficulties with AOL, he earned respect for the company and rebuilt his ties with Wall Street. He streamlined Time Warner’s structure, reduced debt and sold Warner Music Group and a book publishing division.

He also fended off activist investor Carl Icahn’s calls to break up the company in 2006 and helped Time Warner reach a settlement with investors and regulators over questionable accounting practices at AOL.

Parsons joined Time Warner as president in 1995 after serving as chairman and chief executive of Dime Bancorp Inc., one of the largest U.S. savings banks.

In 2001, after AOL used its wealth as a leading provider of Internet access in the United States to purchase Time Warner for $106 billion in stock, Parsons became co-chief operating officer along with AOL CEO Robert Pittman. In this role, he was responsible for the company’s content businesses, including film studios and recordings.

He became CEO in 2002 when Gerald Levin, one of the main architects of that merger, retired. Parsons was named chairman of Time Warner the following year, replacing AOL founder Steve Case, who had also pushed for the merger.

The newly formed company’s Internet division quickly became a liability for Time Warner. The promised synergies between traditional and new media never materialized. AOL experienced a decline in subscribers in 2002 as Americans replaced dial-up connections with broadband connections from cable TV and phone companies.

Parsons stepped down as CEO in 2007 and as chairman in 2008. A year later, AOL split from Time Warner and began operating 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.

Parsons has served on the boards of Citigroup and its predecessor Citibank since 1996 and was named chairman in 2009 at a time of turmoil for the financial institution. Citigroup had suffered five consecutive quarters of losses and received $45 billion in government aid. Its board had been criticized for allowing the bank to invest so heavily in the risky real estate market.

Citigroup returned to profitability under Parsons starting in 2010 and only posted another quarterly loss in the fourth quarter of 2017. Parsons retired from that position in 2012.

In 2014, he took over as interim CEO of the NBA’s Los Angeles Clippers until Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer took over later that same year.

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

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

Parsons, whose love of jazz led him to co-own a jazz club in Harlem, was also chairman of the Apollo Theater and the Jazz Foundation of America. He has also held board positions at 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 received his law degree from Albany Law School in 1971. He leaves behind his wife Laura and their family.

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This obituary was written primarily by the late Associated Press reporter Anick Jesdanun, who passed away in 2020.