MassMutual Ex-CEO Plans to Fight Dismissal

Robert O’Connell, MassMutual Financial Group’s recently fired chief executive, said Thursday he would fight the decision by the company’s board of directors, saying, “virtually every charge they made is unsubstantiated.”

“I spent this morning expressing to the board my personal dissatisfaction and problems with the entire process, which was so unfair,” O’Connell told reporters after a meeting with the board. O’Connell said he also told the board he expected to go to arbitration and eventually be vindicated.

The MassMutual board said O’Connell had “engaged in a systematic and pervasive pattern of willful abuse of authority.” It also said O’Connell improperly allowed friends and family to use company aircraft.