The Man Who Keeps The Peace

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By Newsweek Editors

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At a burly 6 feet 4 inches, you might think the president of Time Warner would be an intimidating presence in the boardroom. But Richard Parsons, 51, is known for his charisma, charm and a Clintonesque ability--in the good sense--to connect with people and mediate conflicts. A native of Brooklyn, he finished high school two years early. After attending the University of Hawaii and Albany Law School in New York three years later, he took top honors in the New York bar exam and landed a job in the office of New York Gov. Nelson Rockefeller in 1972. Parsons followed Rocky to Washington and the Ford White House, where he worked with future New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani. Though Parsons later helped with Giuliani's first mayoral campaign and was offered the job of deputy mayor in 1993 (he turned it down), the two had a falling out four years later when Giuliani tried to force Time Warner's New York City cable service to carry the Fox News Channel. Parsons's relationship with Giuliani suffered, but he managed to diffuse a potentially explosive situation with Fox.

After a decade with a New York law firm, Parsons joined Dime Savings Bank in 1988. His people skills were evident even as he laid off one third of the staff at Dime, going out of his way to ensure employees understood the thinking behind the restructuring. When Time Warner offered him the job of president in 1995, some were skeptical: he had never worked in media. His critics underestimated him. Parsons became Gerald Levin's chief troubleshooter, widely praised for working behind the scenes to smooth conflicts between the company's disparate branches. He'll have his work cut out for him now, with the new merger ushering in a whole new set of personal tensions and corporate culture clashes.

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