Bloomberg Markets

What Dick Parsons Saw When He Made It Inside the Executive Suite

The former Citigroup chairman says he’s fundamentally an optimist about race in America, but isn’t sure Wall Street is really changing.

Provide news feedback or report an error

Confidential tip?

Send a tip to our reporters

Site feedback:

Take our Survey

By Max Abelson

August 3, 2020 at 8:00 AM UTC

This article is for subscribers only.

This article is part of the August 11, 2020 issue of Markets.

This Bloomberg Markets article is part of “The Only One in the Room,” an oral history of the Black experience on Wall Street.

Dick Parsons, 72, is a senior adviser at asset management firm Providence Equity. He worked for Vice President Nelson Rockefeller and President Gerald Ford before joining the law firm Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler. He ran Dime Bancorp Inc., then Time Warner Inc. from 2002 to 2007. As chairman of Citigroup Inc. from 2009 to 2012, he was one of the most powerful African Americans in Wall Street history.