Richard Parsons
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| Born: | April 4, 1948 Brooklyn, New York, USA |
|---|---|
| Occupation: | Businessman |
| Salary: | 10.64 million |
| Website: | TimeWarner Corporate |
Richard Dean Parsons (born April 4, 1948), is the chairman of the board and chief executive officer of Time Warner. He is also on the board of directors of Citigroup. A native of Brooklyn, New York, Parsons graduated from the University of Hawaii, where he played varsity basketball. He earned a law degree from Albany Law School in 1971, coming top of his class.
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[edit] Positions held
A liberal African-American Republican, Parsons served an internship at the New York State Legislature, at which time he was invited to work as a lawyer for the staff of the then New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller. When Rockefeller was appointed Vice President of the United States, in 1974, Parsons followed him to Washington D.C., where he worked directly with President Gerald Ford. He also met a deputy attorney general, Harold R. Tyler, and one his aides, a young Rudolph W. Giuliani, with whom he was to be closely associated - supporting him in his campaign for New York mayor and heading his transitional council.[1]
In 1977, Parsons returned to New York and became a partner after only two years at the Patterson, Belknap, Webb & Tyler law firm; Working at the firm was Giuliani. During his eleven years at the firm he took on Happy Rockefeller, the widow of Nelson (who had died in 1979) as a high-profile client.[2] In 1988, he was recruited to serve as chief operating officer of the Dime Bank by Harry W. Albright Jr., who was a former Rockefeller aide. He later became chairman and CEO[1] and oversaw a merger with Anchor Savings Bank; gaining a substantial sum when the Dime Bank was demutualized.
Three years later, in 1991, on the recommendation of Nelson's brother Laurance Rockefeller to the then CEO Steven Ross, Parsons was invited to join Time Warner's board; he subsequently became president of the company in 1995, recruited by Gerald Levin.[1] He helped negotiate the company's merger with America Online in 2000, creating a $165-billion media conglomerate.
In December 2001, it was announced that chief executive Gerald Levin would retire and Parsons was selected as his successor. The announcement surprised many media watchers who expected chief operating officer Robert Pittman to take the helm. In 2003, Parsons made the announcement of the name change from AOL Time Warner to simply Time Warner.[2]
[edit] Prominent connections
From the early 1980's through much of the 1990's, Parsons owned a house at the Rockefeller family estate in Pocantico Hills, (see Kykuit), where his grandfather was once a groundskeeper. For a brief time he had worked for Nelson at the family office, Room 5600, at Rockefeller Center (he currently has a Time Warner office in Rockefeller Plaza at the Center).[1]
Parsons is chairman emeritus of the Partnership for New York City, established by David Rockefeller in 1979, who has known him for many years. He is an advisory trustee of the family's principal philanthropy, the Rockefeller Brothers Fund and he sits with David Rockefeller on the board of the World Trade Center Memorial Foundation. Parsons is also on the board of the family created Museum of Modern Art.
In 2001, United States President George W. Bush selected Parsons to co-chair a commission on Social Security. Parsons also worked on the transition team for Michael Bloomberg, who was elected Mayor of New York City in 2001. In 2006, Parsons was selected to co-chair the transition team for the incoming Governor of New York, Eliot Spitzer.[3]
In August 2006, an article in New York Magazine reported that Parsons will likely run for Mayor of New York City in the 2009 New York mayoral election, claiming that "insiders say it's all but official".[4]
[edit] See also
[edit] Notes
- ^ a b c d New York Times, 2001: Richard Parsons profile
- ^ a b Encyclopedia of World Biography
- ^ Partnership Members Assist Spitzer Transition Team
- ^ New York Magazine: Is Parsons the New Bloomberg?
[edit] External links
- Richard D. Parsons, biography at the Time Warner corporate Web site
- New Boss for a Media Giant Is an Old Hand at New York 2001 New York Times article profiling Parsons and his connections to the Rockefeller family.
- Richard Parsons biography, at the Encyclopedia of World Biography
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