Former Time Warner And CBS Chairman Was 76

Richard Parsons, the Time Warner CEO from 2002-2007 when the media conglomerate was recovering from the epic fail of the AOL merger and who later became interim chairman of CBS to right its ship following the resignation of Leslie Moonves, died Thursday in Manhattan after a long illness. He was 76.

Parsons’ longtime friend Ronald S. Lauder, a member with Parsons of the Estée Lauder board, told the New York Times today that Parsons died of bone cancer.

The Brooklyn-born Parsons, an astute but soft spoken and genial presence, was a lawyer and a specialist in helping steady companies in need. He also served in both state and federal politics under New York Gov. Nelson Rockefeller, and presidents Gerald R. Ford, George W. Bush and Barack Obama.

Parsons, who has been one of nation’s most powerful Black executives, joined the company then called AOL Time Warner in 2002, replacing the late Gerald Levin as CEO. Faced with economic and culture-clash fallout from what is widely considered one of the worst mergers in corporate history, he removed the AOL from the company’s name and dramatically, from atop its former Columbus Circle headquarters, the Time Warner Center, in 2003. His work getting the business back on track including fending off corporate raider Carl Icahn, who was pushing for the company to split up. In 2009, Time Warner spun out AOL as a stand-alone company.

He eventually handed the Time Warner reins to then-COO Jeff Bewkes, who led the company through its subsequent sale to AT&T.

After Time Warner, Parsons was named chairman of Citigroup in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis, and then became interim CEO of the Los Angeles Clippers in 2014 amid the scandal around then-owner Donald Sterling forced Sterling to resign and sell the team.

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In September 2008, Parsons, who had been serving as an advisor to CBS controlling shareholder Shari Redstone’s National Amusements amid a battle with Moonves for control of CBS Corp, was appointed interim CBS chairman after Moonves was forced resignation amid allegations of sexual misconduct from several women.

That tenure lasted just a month, however, resigning in October of that year. Parsons cited health reasons related to his ongoing fight with multiple myeloma as the reason for his sudden exit.

In 2008, Parsons also served as a member of the then president-elect Obama’s Economic Transition Team and later served as a member of Obama’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness.

He co-founded Imagination Capital in 2017 and served as partner in the venture capital firm. He has been a longtime senior advisor to giant Providence Equity Partners.

According to various bios, Parsons is also the chairman of the Apollo Theater Foundation, and also serves on the boards of Citigroup, the Estee Lauder Companies, the Museum of Modern Art and the American Museum of Natural History. He also co-chairs the Advisory Committee of the National Museum of African American History and Culture at the Smithsonian.