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The 100 Most Influential Irish Americans in Business: R. O’Connell – P. O’Malley

January 2000

October 27, 2021 by Leave a Comment

Robert J. O’Connell

President &CEO

Massachusetts Mutual Life

Insurance Company

Revenue: $11.7 billion

Employees: approx. 5,000

Robert J. O’Connell was appointed president, chief executive officer and director of Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company (MassMutual) on January 4, 1999. He brings to MassMutual more than 28 years of experience in the life insurance industry — most recently at American International Group, Inc. (AIG) and previously at New York Life Insurance Company.

At AIG, O’Connell was president and chief executive officer of the AIG U.S. Life Companies and corporate senior vice president. As chief executive of the AIG U.S. Life Companies, he was responsible for substantial increases in the company’s assets, premiums and profits.

He also developed AIG’s career agency sales force and expanded the company’s global pension and group insurance divisions. He began his career in 1970 with the New York Life Insurance Company. Prior to that, O’Connell was an assistant professor of Economic History at Fairfield University in Connecticut.

He serves on a number of boards, including Oppenheimer Acquisition Corp., DLB Acquisition Corp. and the Life Office Management Association. He is a member of the advisory committee to the CATO Project on Social Security Privatization, and has also been a trustee of the Committee for Economic Development and a member of the American Council of Life Insurance Committee on Financial Services Integration.

A graduate of Fordham University, O’Connell received his M.A. in European Economic History at the University of Pennsylvania. A second-generation Irish American, he is married with two children.

Dean R. O’Hare

Chairman &CEO

The Chubb Corporation

Revenue: $6.4 billion

Employees: 11,000

Dean O’Hare began his career with the Chubb Corporation — an insurance holding company based in Warren, New Jersey — in 1963 as a surety underwriting trainee. He was named an officer of the corporation in 1972, served as chief financial officer from 1981 to 1994 and was elected president in 1986. He took up his present position as chairman and chief executive officer in 1988. He is also chairman and CEO of Chubb &Son, Inc., a subsidiary of the Chubb Corporation.

O’Hare was born in Jersey City, New Jersey, and graduated from New York University in 1963 with a B.S. in financial management. In 1969, he earned an M.B.A. from Pace University Graduate School of Business Administration.

Along with being an active member of several insurance industry and business organizations, O’Hare serves as a director of the American Ireland Fund and of Co-Operation Ireland, an organization that promotes cooperation between Ireland north and south. He is married and has two sons.

David B. O’Maley

Chairman, President &CEO

The Ohio National Life

Insurance Company

Ohio National Financial Services

Revenue: $1.4 billion

Employees: 6,000

David B. O’Maley was elected to his current position as chairman, president and chief executive officer of The Ohio National Life Insurance Company in February, 1994. He joined the company in March 1992 as executive vice president and chief marketing officer and was elected president and chief operating officer in 1993.

O’Maley’s career in life insurance began in 1968. He spent the next 24 years with Life of Virginia serving as an agent, agency assistant manager and agency head. He was promoted to vice president of ordinary agencies and then vice president of agency operations before becoming chief marketing officer and a member of the board of directors in 1986. He also served as president of the company’s broker dealer and two life insurance company subsidiaries.

A third-generation Irish American, O’Maley was born in Long Island, New York and earned a bachelor’s degree in marketing from Florida Atlantic University. He also has a master’s degree in financial services from the American College in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania.

O’Maley serves on the board of directors of Firstar Corporation and Firstar Bank, N.A., and the Midland Company. In the civic realm, he serves on the board of trustees of the University of Cincinnati Foundation, the Cincinnati Country Day School and on the board of directors of the National Conference for Community and Justice among many other worthy causes.

O’Maley is married with three children. He is an active pilot and an avid golfer.

Peter O’Malley

Los Angeles Dodgers

Until last year, when his family sold the Los Angeles Dodgers, Peter O’Malley was president of the club, a position he had held since 1970. The O’Malley family, which purchased the Dodgers in 1950, held the record for longest ownership of a baseball team in major league history. O’Malley assumed presidency of the club in 1970, taking over from his father Walter, who was president from 1950 to 1970.

The Dodgers have finished the season in first or second place 36 times in 54 years and have won six world titles. In 1997 they were the only sports franchise chosen by Fortune magazine as one of the “100 Best Companies to Work For in America.”

O’Malley graduated from University of Pennsylvania with a B.S. in Economics in 1960 and went on to study business law at the Wharton School of Business and Finance. He began his career with the Dodgers in 1962 when he was named director of Dodgertown, the club’s spring training camp in Vero Beach, Florida.

O’Malley has enthusiastically supported baseball at both the amateur and professional levels in several countries, including Ireland. He donated $100,000 to establish a permanent baseball facility in Corkagh Park in Dublin which includes both regulation Little League and standard adult fields.

“In the past, the children have been playing baseball on corners of rugby and soccer fields in Ireland, frequently being asked to relocate during the game,” said O’Malley. “Now the children and families of Dublin have their own field of dreams to enjoy the game of baseball.”

A third generation Irish American, O’Malley traces his roots to County Mayo. He is married with three children.♦

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