Richard Parsons, esteemed corporate leader and jazz enthusiast, dies at 76

Richard Dean Parsons, a distinguished leader in corporate America renowned for his roles at Time Warner and Citigroup, died Thursday at his Manhattan home. He was 76. Parsons, who was diagnosed with multiple myeloma in 2015, had scaled back his professional commitments in recent years due to complications from the disease. Lazard, the financial services firm where Parsons was a longtime board member, confirmed his death. Ronald Lauder, chairman emeritus of Estée Lauder, called Parsons “a colossus in the worlds of business, media, culture, and philanthropy.” Parsons resigned from the boards of Lazard and Estée Lauder earlier this month for health reasons, ending a 25-year tenure with the latter company. CNBC’s ‘Squawk Box’ team discusses CBS’s interim chairman after former CEO Les Moonves left the CBS board amid sexual misconduct claims. (YouTube.com Screen capture) CNBC’s ‘Squawk Box’. (YouTube.com Screen capture) David Zaslav, CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery, described Parsons as a “great mentor and friend” and credited him as “one of the greatest problem solvers this industry has ever seen.” Born on April 4, 1948, in Brooklyn, New York, Parsons exhibited academic excellence from a young age, beginning college at just 16. He earned his law degree from Albany Law...