Richard Parsons, a pivotal figure in steering Time Warner through its tumultuous separation from AOL, has passed away at the age of 76. Lazard, where Parsons served on the board for many years, confirmed his death.
In 2002, Parsons stepped in as CEO of AOL Time Warner, succeeding Gerald Levin. Levin had exited two years following the ill-fated $165 billion merger with the nascent internet company. Under Parsons’ leadership, first as CEO and later as chairman, Time Warner experienced a significant turnaround. He orchestrated the removal of “AOL” from the company name and managed to cut its hefty $30 billion debt down to $16.8 billion through the sale of Warner Music and other assets.
Reflecting on the merger in a 2004 interview with The Independent, Parsons remarked, “The merger did not work out quite the way many of us expected. The internet bubble burst, and we had to fix the leaks. However, it wasn’t as monumental a task as it seemed because the core businesses of the old Time Warner — publishing, cable networks, and movies — were performing well.”
He pointed out that after the merger, AOL’s business model collapsed, and Warner Music Group faced struggles amidst a declining music industry. “So we opted to sell our music business and other nonstrategic assets to reinforce our balance sheet and bring in new management,” he explained. Parsons chose to leave Time Warner in 2007.
Richard Dean “Dick” Parsons was born on April 4, 1948, in Brooklyn’s Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood and was raised in South Ozone Park, Queens, New York. As one of five siblings, Parsons was a middle child. He excelled in public school, skipping two grades, and by age 16, he found himself at the University of Hawaii. There, he played basketball and met his future wife, Laura Ann Bush, whom he married in 1968.
After earning his degree, he returned to New York to study at Albany Law School. While there, he juggled his studies with working part-time as a janitor to help with tuition, ultimately graduating at the top of his class. An internship at the New York state legislature connected him with moderate Republican Governor Nelson Rockefeller, who later became Vice President under Gerald Ford following Nixon’s resignation. This network led Parsons to serve as associate director of Ford’s domestic policy council.
Reflecting on these connections in a 1994 New York Times interview, Parsons said, “The old-boy network lives. I didn’t grow up with any of the old boys. I didn’t go to school with any of the old boys. But by becoming a part of that Rockefeller entourage,
