Richard Parsons was a Senior Advisor at Providence Equity Partners, Inc., a leading private equity investment firm specializing in media, communications, and information companies. He was the former Chairman of the Board of Citigroup, Inc. Prior to serving in those roles, he was the Chairman of the Board and CEO of Time Warner, Inc., the world’s largest media and entertainment company, from 2002 to 2008. In its January 2005 edition on America’s Best CEOs, Institutional Investor magazine named Mr. Parsons the top CEO in the entertainment industry.
Before joining Time Warner, in 1995, Mr. Parsons was Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Dime Bancorp, Inc., one of the largest thrift institutions in the United States. Previously, he was the managing partner of the New York law firm Patterson, Belknap, Webb and Tyler. Prior to that, he held various positions in state and federal government, as counsel for Nelson Rockefeller and as a senior White House aide under President Gerald Ford. Mr. Parsons received his undergraduate education at the University of Hawaii and his legal training at Union University’s Albany Law School.
In 2008, Mr. Parsons served as a member of then President-Elect Barack Obama’s Economic Transition Team as well as a member of President Obama’s President’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness. He was the Chairman of Governor Andrew Cuomo’s New NY Education Reform Commission. His other civic and nonprofit commitments included Chairman Emeritus of the Partnership for New York City; Chairman of the Apollo Theater Foundation and of the Jazz Foundation of America. He also served on the boards of the Museum of Modem Art, the American Museum of Natural History, and the Rockefeller Foundation.
Mr. Parsons was also a member of the boards of The Estee Lauder Companies Inc., Lazard Freres and Company, and Madison Square Garden, Inc.
