Will ex-Time Warner CEO Richard Parsons be the next Commerce Secretary?

Posted Jan 7th 2009 4:40PM by Jonathan Berr
Filed under: Time Warner (TWX), Citigroup Inc. (C), Politics

Former Time Warner Inc. (NYSE: TWX) Chief Executive Richard Parsons is rumored to be under consideration to be the next Secretary of Commerce after New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson withdrew his name because of an ongoing investigation in his state.

Parsons, who tangled with billionaire Carl Icahn during the recent proxy fight, already is an economic adviser to President-elect Barack Obama. He would make a great spokesman for American business during the current economic crisis.

In fact, Parsons is probably more suited for the job than Richardson, a career politician. Parsons does have baggage, though. You can expect service on corporate boards such as Citigroup Inc. (NYSE: C) to come up during his confirmation hearings.

Parsons joined Time Warner's board in 1991 and became CEO in 2002 after the problematic $124 billion merger with AOL (the parent company of this blog), which the company is still recovering from today. He deserves some credit for patching up the situation and settling costly investor lawsuits.

Should Parsons join the administration, he will not be the only former Time Warner employee to do so. Dr. Sanjay Gupta, the globe-trotting CNN medical correspondent, is slated to be Surgeon General.

Tags: BIll Richardson, BillRichardson, inthenews, Richard Parsons, RichardParsons, SAnjay Gupta, SanjayGupta, TWX

Print this

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

1-07-2009 @ 4:58PM

widollar said...

Richard Parsons would make an excellent Secretary of Commerce. He has run a multi-billion dollar global company, and was not responsible for the train wreck created by the AOL and Time Warner merger. Levin and Steve Case are responsible for that disaster. Ted Turner will never recover from two things, selling his baby CNN to Time Warner and going along with the AOL Time Warner merger that almost made his vast fortune disappear.

1-07-2009 @ 4:59PM

jrzshor said...

of course

he will be a great asset as evidenced by his running time warner and his getting really really big pay checks.

1-07-2009 @ 8:54PM

alan said...

I think Mr. Parsons is a wonderful man, but a great CEO, really?
Do you honestly beleive that Time Warner has met any of its STATED CORPORATE objectives over the past few under his leadership.That is what the performance/effectiveness of a CEO based on.
So Mr. Parsons is the best man/woman in America to head Commerce. He may make President Obama feel comfortable with the appointment, but we need leadership now !!!!!!

1-07-2009 @ 8:54PM

meetingspro said...

Parsons will be a great choice. He is well qualified, and brings a level of respect that can't be denied.

1-22-2009 @ 9:36AM

bam1766 said...

Parsons is a bum, anyone who disagrees didn't follow his pathetic tenure at time warner. In his 5 years as ceo of the company the stock price went from 17.52 to 10 which was down from 92. He made 100 million and decreased the value for shareholders. Aol was already factored into the stock price when he got there, he didnt do a thing for 5 years and sank aol even more. He doesn't know anything, he doesn't do anything , just pay me. He was good at taking the corporate jet to Italy at the cost of 187k per trip at the shareholders expense, to see his vineyards. I would bet the ranch on shorting citi since the announcement but the stock is at 3 and change. I get a kick outof some of these responses, he gets a level of respect lol, so does George Bush, and Donald Trump you want to put them there.