Anyone who names Nelson Rockefeller as his most influential
role model is bound to be something of a curiosity. Sort of like someone who
cites Ringo as his favorite Beatle — intriguing,
sure. But also a little out of step.
Which is fine by Richard Parsons, AOL
Time Warner Inc.'s new chief executive, named yesterday to succeed Gerald M.
Levin when he retires in May. Parsons is accustomed to being something
of an oddity. He was the New York City
kid who went to college in Hawaii.
At a beefy 6-foot-4, he's usually the biggest man in any boardroom. He's a black
Republican who's quoted economist Adam Smith in speeches.
Described as someone who hates conflict, Parsons has
clung to Rockefeller Republicanism — an orthodoxy
based on compromise. And though his ideology tiptoes around the dustbin of
history, Parsons has forged it into his dominant trait: the ability to mediate
and persuade, soothing conflicts and making deals by the gentle application of
his hulking presence and his calm, insistent demeanor.
At AOL Time Warner — the mega-corporation lurching to marry
old media with new — Parsons's conciliatory skills
may have tipped the scales in his favor as the board of directors chose him as
Levin's successor.
"Parsons is a very well respected, very highly
regarded by the board, and he knows the company really well," said a
company manager who has known him for years.
"He is always searching for common ground,"
said Deborah Wright, president of New York's
Carver Federal Savings Bank.
Wright worked for the failed 1997 campaign of David N. Dinkins, defeated by Rudolph W. Giuliani
for New York City mayor. Parsons
was a former New York law firm
partner of Giuliani's and managed his transition. He
wanted Wright in the new mayor's administration. He summoned her to his office,
telling her she could help Giuliani reach out to the
city's minorities who supported Dinkins.
"I was completely closed to the idea," Wright
recalled.
Just meet the man, Parsons cajoled. Wright agreed, was
won over by Giuliani and accepted a job as the city's
housing commissioner.
The lesson, Wright said, laughing: "Don't ever sit
on Dick's couch."
Parsons, 53, was born in Brooklyn's
Bedford-Stuyvesant section and raised in Queens,
one of five children of a Sperry Rand technician and a homemaker. After a
party-filled undergrad career at the University of Hawaii — he applied on a
whim and got accepted — Parsons came home to New York and entered Albany Law
School. He graduated first in his class in 1971. He nailed the top score on the
New York state
bar exam, catching then-governor Rockefeller's eye, and the Rockefeller ride
began. Parsons worked for Rockefeller then and followed him to Washington
after he became vice president. After Rockefeller's death in 1979, Parsons
became "a sort of trustee for most of the family assets," he said.
"Nelson was my first mentor," Parsons said
during a phone interview yesterday. "My own dad was my hero, but you need
a mentor and Nelson was that for me. I was devoted to him. As a politician, I
didn't agree with everything he said, but nobody who ever worked for Nelson
ever questioned his motives. He would not think to take a position other than
one he thought was in the public interest."
In 1977, Parsons joined the New York
City law firm of Patterson, Belknap,
Webb & Tyler, where he met Giuliani. In 1988,
Parsons took over the Dime Savings Bank, standing on the precipice of the
thrift crisis. His calm hand was credited with saving jobs as the bank
restructured, according to accounts of the time. Later, he waded into politics
but stopped short of immersion: He helped Giuliani
into office but declined the deputy mayor's job.
Then, in 1994, Levin offered Parsons the presidency of
Time Warner Inc. Though his job was to oversee the company's content — music, television
and movies — Parsons would become the company's point man in the largest
corporate merger in U.S.
history.
"He had the 'CEO veneer,' " said Deborah Lathen, the Federal Communications Commission's former
cable chief, who oversaw the merger. "Even though
we are ideologically and politically on different sides of the fence, I had the
utmost respect for him in the manner in which he interfaced with the agency and
the way his team managed the merger. He was always respectful of the regulatory
process but, at the same time, made sure his team pushed very hard for AOL's
position."
William E. Kennard, who was FCC chairman during the
merger, said he admires Parsons as a black role model. "He feels he has a
responsibility because of that," Kennard said.
In the spring of 1999, Kennard flew to Los
Angeles and met with women and minority actors,
screenwriters and producers. They complained about an entertainment industry
that didn't give their shows a fair shot. Except for one
company: It's different at Time Warner, they said.
Kennard asked: Why?
Because of Dick Parsons, they replied. He will listen to
us. He understands us.
Parsons remains active in politics. Along with former
senator Patrick D. Moynihan (D-N.Y.), he chairs the
presidential commission on Social Security reform. He is on the Howard
University board of trustees and
sided with the late Lee Atwater when the former Republican National Committee
chairman bowed to student demands and resigned from Howard's board.
"Since we are a journalistic company, we have
concluded it is inappropriate for me to be too visibly active in partisan
politics," he said. AOL Time Warner owns CNN and other news outlets.
Parsons is a jazz fan who serves on the Apollo Theater
Foundation. About a year ago, Parsons sank some of his $4.75 million 1999 bonus
into a "small" vineyard in Italy's
Tuscany region, which he said
produces about 1,000 cases of wine per season. As for other pastimes, the
towering father of three has abandoned pickup basketball. "I gave it up
when the refs started calling me 'Pops,' " he laughs. Now, he said,
"I nap a lot."
December 6, 2001
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