'Tough and Brilliant,' He Led Time Warner, Citigroup

Richard Parsons, one of corporate America's most prominent Black executives who held top posts at Time Warner and Citigroup, died Thursday, reports the AP. He was 76. Parsons, who died at his Manhattan home, was diagnosed with multiple myeloma in 2015 and cited "unanticipated complications" from the disease for cutting back on work a few years later. The financial services company Lazard, where Parsons was a longtime board member, confirmed his death. David Zaslav, the president and CEO of Time Warner successor Warner Bros. Discovery, remembered Parsons as a "great mentor and friend" and a "tough and brilliant negotiator, always looking to create something where both sides win."

"All who got a chance to work with him and know him saw that 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 stepped down Dec. 3 from the boards of Lazard and Lauder's company, Estée Lauder, citing health reasons. He had been on Estée Lauder's board 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 Inc., where he helped restore the company's stature following its much-maligned acquisition by internet provider America Online Inc.

He steered Citigroup back to profit after financial turmoil from the subprime mortgage crisis, which upended the economy in 2007 and 2008. Parsons was named to the board of CBS in September 2018 but resigned a month later because of illness. Parsons said in a statement at the time that he was already dealing with multiple myeloma when he joined the board, but "unanticipated complications have created additional new challenges." He said his doctors advised him to cut back on his commitments to ensure recovery. "Dick's storied career embodied the finest 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 his irresistible warmth." (More Richard Parsons stories.)