Unlock Editor’s Digest for free
FT editor Roula Khalaf selects her favorite stories in this weekly newsletter.
Richard “Dick” Parsons, an influential American corporate executive who chaired Citigroup during the fallout of the 2008 financial crisis, has died.
Parsons died Thursday, according to an advertisement of the investment bank Lazard, where he had been a member of the board of directors. The New York Times reported the cause of death as bone cancer, citing Ronald Lauder, the Estée Lauder heir. Parsons was 76 years old.
Parsons became president of Citi in February 2009, as the bank was reeling from the 2008 financial crisis. He joined the bank shortly after its $300 billion bailout by the federal government. Parsons told the Financial Times in 2009 that his experience and business connections would be an asset to Citi.
“The influence and involvement of taxpayers and regulators over this company is significant,” he said at the time. Parsons left Citi in 2012.
He previously got into a firefight in 2002 when he took over Time Warner after its disastrous merger with AOL. At Time Warner, Parsons took on activist investor Carl Icahn, who fought for control of the media giant in 2006.
Parsons supported Barack Obama’s candidacy for the White House. He also served on the boards of the Apollo Theater in New York and the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington.
This is a developing story.
