Former Citigroup chairman Richard Parsons dies

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Richard “Dick” Parsons, the influential American executive who led Citigroup through the 2008 financial crisis, has died.

Parsons died on Thursday following announcement from the investment bank Lazard, where he was a board member. The New York Times reported that the cause of death was bone cancer, citing Ronald Lauder, heir to Estée Lauder. Parsons was 76 years old.

Parsons took over as chairman of Citi in February 2009 as the bank was reeling from the 2008 financial crisis. He joined the bank shortly after it received a $300bn bailout from the government of corporation. Parsons said the Financial Times in 2009 that his background and business connections would be an asset to Citi.

“The influence and involvement of taxpayers and regulators over this company is important,” he said at the time. Parsons left Citi in 2012.

He once threw himself into a firefight in 2002 when he took over Time Warner after it merged with AOL. At Time Warner, Parsons clashed with activist investor Carl Icahn who fought for control of the media giant in 2006.

Parsons supported Barack Obama’s run for the White House. He also served on the boards of the Apollo Theater in New York and the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington.

This is an ongoing story