Richard D. Parsons has died: He died at the age of 76. The direct cause of death was indicated metastases of malignant tumor to the bone. “He embodied the best traditions of American business leadership,” recalls him from the financial industry company Lazard, where he was a board member for 25 years. He resigned from this position in December due to illness.
He had political connections: He started his career as a lawyer on the governor's staff New York Nelson Rockefeller, for whom he also worked in the White House. During the economic crisis in 2008, he advised Barack Obama.
He raised the “worst fusion”: In 2000, as president of Time Warner, he helped negotiate the company's merger with America Online, creating a $165 billion media conglomerate. This transaction is deemed to be “worst merger ever“, among others, due to the revaluation of AOL and the burst of the Internet bubble, as well as different cultures and business visions. However, Richard D. Parsons managed to reduce debt by approximately 50% and enter a new era of stable development.
Richard D. Parsons was a “special operations man”: In the following years, he restored Citigroup's profitability after the turmoil caused by the global financial crisis, where he was president from 2009 to 2012. When in 2014 Donald Sterling was banned from the NBA for life for racist comments, Richard D. Parsons took over management of the Los Angeles Clippers. In 2018, he became interim chairman of the CBS board. His fortune is estimated at approximately $22 billion.
The USA says goodbye to another billionaire: “He was more than an iconic leader in Lazard's history, he was a testament to how wisdom, warmth and unwavering judgment could shape not only companies, but people's lives. His legacy lives on in countless leaders, he advised, the institutions he renewed and the doors he opened for others,” his last employer remembers him.
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