Corporate Research Group’s Weblog

There are always questions when a company’s chief financial officer suddenly quits or gets fired — especially when the company is in the middle of implementing a major strategy shift.  Cigna Corp. announced the departure of CFO Annmarie Hagan, naming company treasurer Thomas McCarthy as acting CFO.  Cigna took the unusual step of making public its entire separation and non-disclosure agreement with Hagan.  Two things stood out for me: 1. Hagan gets a lot of money — $1.4 million, plus bonus and long-term compensation payouts; 2. Neither Cigna or Hagan is admitting it violated “any law, rule, order, policy, procedure, or contract.”  Separately, Cigna reaffirmed its 2010 profit forecast.  The implication is clear: the company is going out of its way to show that all is well.  A company spokesman told me the departure was a “mutual decision” and wasn’t related to any malfeasance or disagreement with company strategy or policy.  For the most part, Wall Street seems to be buying the explanation.  Shares in Cigna are down just 0.3% in morning trading in a mixed market opening.

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 2nd, 2010 at 10:15 am and is filed under Managed Care. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.