There are few executives who play a part in orchestrating what has been dubbed one of the worst-ever mergers and then stay on to run the company. Dick Parsons, however, is one of them. He became chief executive of what was then AOL Time War­ner in May 2002 and is preparing soon to hand over at the world’s biggest media group to his number two, Jeff Bewkes.

In that time, the company that made the Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings films, publishes People magazine and broadcasts CNN has again become a respectable member of the US corporate elite. Mr Parsons took over when the aftermath of the $106bn (£52bn, €74bn) takeover by AOL, the “new media” internet sensation, of “old media” Time Warner at the height of the 1990s dotcom boom threatened to unravel the entire corporation. As well as bringing tens of billions of dollars in write-offs, the revelations of false accounting at AOL that inflated its earnings were in danger of sinking the group under the weight of lawsuits.