Dick Parsons’ contract to run Time Warner expires in May 2008, and many believe he’ll retire then (he’s 59 years old), or even sooner. But he has no plans to give up his “labor of love,” the chairmanship of the Apollo Theater Foundation. Since taking over in 2001—at a time when the foundation was recovering from a leadership crisis and accusations of financial mismanagement—Parsons has turned to his network of friends and contacts in the African American business world to overhaul the board. Ed Lewis, founder of Essence Communications (acquired by Time Inc. in 2005), has been a friend for more than 20 years. Former New York State comptroller Carl McCall was a Harlem political activist when Parsons was assistant counsel to Governor Nelson Rockefeller back in the early ’70s. Carla Harris, a managing director at Morgan Stanley, was introduced to Parsons by a colleague who worked on the Time Warner account. In the past two years alone, the board has added 10 new members. And as the profile of its directors has risen, so has the Apollo’s budget—from $3 million in 2001 to $10 million this year. The run-down theater, a Harlem institution that opened its doors in 1934 and helped launch the careers of Ella Fitzgerald and James Brown, has spent $30 million on renovations since 2000, and now Parsons is preparing to lead another round of fundraising for more work. The goal: $20 million. “If there’s one lesson I’ve brought over from the business world,” Parsons says, “it’s the motto ‘One foot in front of the other.’ ” 

(Enlarge the photo. PICTURED ABOVE, FROM LEFT: QUINCY JONES, C.E.O., Quincy Jones Productions; NADJA FIDELIA, Managing director, Lehman Brothers; KURT SCHNEIDER, E.V.P. for marketing, World Wrestling Entertainment; VAL AZZOLI, Former co-chairman and co-C.E.O., Atlantic Group; DICK PARSONS, Chairman and C.E.O., Time Warner; ALFRED LIGGINS III, Chairman, TV One, C.E.O. and president, Radio One; BRETT WRIGHT, Co-founder and C.E.O., NuAmerica Agency; BYRON LEWIS, Chairman and C.E.O., UniWorld Group; ALMA RANGEL, Harlem community liaison; MICHAEL DIAMOND, Chief of staff and S.V.P. for marketing, Time Warner Cable; JOANN H. PRICE, Partner, Fairview Capital; KEITH WALTON, E.V.P. and secretary of the university, Columbia University; GEORGE WEIN, Chairman, Festival Productions; WILLIAM JAMES, Former executive director, Ministerial Interfaith Association; EDWARD LEWIS, Chairman and founder, Essence Communications; HOWARD DODSON, Director, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture; JONELLE PROCOPE, Apollo Theater Foundation. NOT PICTURED: CARLA HARRIS, Managing director for global capital markets, Morgan Stanley; INGRID SAUNDERS JONES, S.V.P. and director of corporate external affairs, Coca-Cola; TRACY MAITLAND, President, Advent Capital Management; CARL MCCALL, Chairman, Convent Capital; VOZA RIVERS, President, Voz Entertainment.)