NEW YORK (AP) — Richard Parsons, one of corporate America's most prominent Black executives who held top posts at Time Warner and Citigroup, died Thursday. He was 76. Parsons, who died at his Manhattan home, was diagnosed with multiple myeloma in 2015 and cited “unanticipated complications” from the disease for cutting back on work a few years later. The financial services company Lazard, where Parsons was a longtime board member, confirmed his death. The NBA, where Parsons was interim CEO of the Los Angeles Clippers in 2014, was among organizations offering condolences. “Dick Parsons was a brilliant and transformational leader and a giant of the media industry who led with integrity and never shied away from a challenge,” NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said. Parsons’ friend Ronald Lauder told The New York Times that the cause of death was cancer. Parsons stepped down Dec. 3 from the boards of Lazard and Lauder's company, Estée Lauder, citing health reasons. He had been on Estée Lauder’s board for 25 years. Parsons, a Brooklyn native who started college at 16, was named chairman of Citigroup in 2009, one month after leaving Time Warner Inc., where he helped restore the company’s stature following its much-maligned acquisition by internet provider America Online Inc. He steered Citigroup back to profit after financial turmoil from the subprime mortgage crisis, which upended the economy in 2007 and 2008. Parsons was named to the board of CBS in September 2018 but resigned a month later because of illness. Parsons said in a statement at the time that he was already dealing with multiple myeloma when he joined the board, but “unanticipated complications have created additional new challenges.” He said his doctors advised him to cut back on his commitments to ensure recovery. “Dick’s storied career embodied the finest traditions of American business leadership,” Lazard said in a statement. The company, where Parsons was a board member from 2012 until this month, praised his “unmistakable intelligence and his irresistible warmth.” “Dick was more than an iconic leader in Lazard’s history — he was a testament to how wisdom, warmth, and unwavering judgment could shape not just companies, but people’s lives,” the company said. “His legacy lives on in the countless leaders he counseled, the institutions he renewed, and the doors he opened for others.” Parsons was known as a skilled negotiator, a diplomat and a crisis manager. Although he was with Time Warner through its difficulties with AOL, he earned respect for the company and rebuilt its relations with Wall Street. He streamlined Time Warner’s structure, pared debt and sold Warner Music Group and a book publishing division. He also fended off a challenge from activist investor Carl Icahn in 2006 to break up the company and helped Time Warner reach settlements with investors and regulators over questionable accounting practices at AOL. Parsons joined Time Warner as president in 1995 after serving as chairman and chief executive of Dime Bancorp Inc., one of the largest U.S. thrift institutions. In 2001, after AOL used its fortunes as the leading provider of Internet access in the U.S. to buy Time Warner for $106 billion in stock, Parsons became co-chief operating officer with AOL executive Robert Pittman. In that role, he was in charge of the company’s content businesses, including movie studios and recorded music. He became CEO in 2002 with the retirement of Gerald Levin, one of the key architects of that merger. Parsons was named Time Warner chairman the following year, replacing AOL founder Steve Case, who had also championed the combination. The newly formed company’s Internet division quickly became a drag on Time Warner. The promised synergies between traditional and new media never materialized. AOL began seeing a reduction in subscribers in 2002 as Americans replaced dial-up connections with broadband from cable TV and phone companies. Parsons stepped down as CEO in 2007 and as chairman in 2008. A year later AOL split from Time Warner and began trading as a separate company, following years of struggles to reinvent itself as a business focused on advertising and content. Time Warner is now owned by AT&T Inc. A board member of Citigroup and its predecessor, Citibank, since 1996, Parsons was named chairman in 2009 at a time of turmoil for the financial institution. Citigroup had suffered five straight quarters of losses and received $45 billion in government aid. Its board had been criticized for allowing the bank to invest so heavily in the risky housing market. Citigroup returned to profit under Parsons, starting in 2010, and would not have a quarterly loss again until the fourth quarter of 2017. Parsons retired from that job in 2012. In 2014 he stepped in as interim CEO of the Clippers until Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer took over later that year. Parsons, a Republican, previously worked as a lawyer for Nelson Rockefeller, a former Republican governor of New York, and in Gerald Ford’s White House. Those early stints gave him grounding in politics and negotiations. He also was an economic adviser on President Barack Obama’s transition team. Parsons, who loved jazz and co-owned a Harlem jazz club, also served as Chairman of the Apollo Theater and the Jazz Foundation of America. And he held positions on the boards of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, the American Museum of Natural History and the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. Parsons played basketball at the University of Hawaii at Manoa and received his law degree from Albany Law School in 1971. He is survived by his wife, Laura, and their family. This obituary was primarily written by the late Associated Press reporter Anick Jesdanun, who died in 2020 .
Multiple wings of the South Korean military apparatus assured the public on Friday that President Yoon Suk-yeol would not attempt to impose martial law for a second time this week, responding to spreading rumors that Yoon may attempt to exercise that power before an impeachment vote scheduled for Saturday. A senior army official, Commander Kwak Jong-keun, went further, telling lawmakers on Friday that, even if Yoon attempted to decree martial law, the Army Special Warfare Command would ignore him, according to the Korea JoongAng Daily . An unnamed top official in the Defense Ministry issued the same promise to disregard presidential orders should they come to impose military rule on the country. Some members of the left-wing Democratic Party and a group called the Center for Military Human Rights Korea suggested on Friday that Yoon may attempt to declare military rule a second time before he was impeached, prompting the multiple denials and assurances that, even if Yoon tries, the military would not follow his orders. “If there ever is a call for declaring martial law once again, the Defense Ministry and the Joint Chiefs of Staff will not allow it,” the news agency Yonhap quoted a Defense Ministry official as saying. Yonhap added that the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) itself also said it would not obey a martial law order, but emphasized, “there will not be a second declaration.” Acting Defense Minister Kim Seon-ho said at an emergency press conference on Friday that “rumors ... on signs of another martial law declaration are not true.” “Even if there is an order for martial law issuance, the defense ministry and the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) will never accept it,” he promised . Kim Seon-ho took over from Yoon’s longstanding defense minister, Kim Yong-hyun, on Thursday, after he tendered his resignation . Kim Yong-hyun, a high school classmate of Yoon’s, is rumored to have been the only cabinet official informed of the martial law plans before they were enacted; some reports suggested that Kim may have even been the originator of the idea. Yoon, a conservative, appeared on television and declared martial law late on Tuesday, a shocking announcement that almost no one in the nation expected or had previous knowledge of, including many in Yoon’s inner circle. Yoon claimed the martial law decree was necessary to combat leftist obstructionism in the National Assembly and alleged that the government had been infiltrated by “North Korean communist forces” and “unscrupulous pro-Pyongyang anti-state forces,” but never named any of the alleged infiltrators or offered evidence for these claims. The declaration prompted disgust and opposition from every sector of South Korean politics, including Yoon’s own People Power Party (PPP), which moved rapidly to distance itself from the announcement. Lawmakers stormed the National Assembly to use their constitutional power to vote against martial law, forcing their way through a column of soldiers dispatched to enforce a ban on political action. The Assembly unanimously voted against martial law and Yoon rescinded the order a few minutes later. Yoon has not addressed the public since. Even in obeying this order, the military appeared not to enforce the ban on entering the National Assembly with much force, as unarmed lawmakers in suits managed to keep throngs of young, heavily armed soldiers from breaking up the vote against martial law. Kwak, the army commander, said on Friday that he refused to follow the orders to break up the meeting. “I judged that dragging out lawmakers was clearly illegal, and so though it would be considered disobedience I did not follow orders,” he asserted. Yoon is scheduled to face an impeachment vote on Saturday. To pass, and to oust him from power, two-thirds of the National Assembly must vote in its favor, which would require eight members of the PPP to vote to expel their own president. The PPP initially opposed impeachment, proposing instead to pass a constitutional amendment to shorten term limits and in that way get rid of Yoon before the end of his tenure. By Friday, however, at least one PPP assemblyman said he would vote for impeachment and the party leader, Han Dong-hoon, told reporters Yoon needs to vacate the presidency as soon as possible. “Although it would be hard to change the party’s stance on Yoon’s impeachment vote, my opinion is that Yoon should be suspended from duty,” Han said , according to the Korea JoongAng Daily, stating that he “had not heard any remarks to reverse a judgment of suspending Yoon Suk Yeol from presidential duty.” Han made the comments after meeting with Yoon on Friday – and after reports surfaced that Yoon had ordered Han’s arrest on Tuesday, among other political leaders. In addition to impeachment, Yoon is facing a police investigation into criminal charges of treason for the martial law order. The Rebuilding Korea party filed criminal charges against Yoon this week; police have confirmed an investigation into whether Yoon acted outside of his constitutional authority in a criminal fashion or not is underway. Follow Frances Martel on Facebook and Twitter.NBA announces final Jaylen Brown punishment decision after gruesome gesture towards rival in Celtics-Pistons