TSEA Executive Director Robert O’Connell to retire in May

TSEA January 10, 2014 Comments Off on TSEA Executive Director Robert O’Connell to retire in May
TSEA Executive Director Robert O’Connell to retire in May

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
January 10th, 2014
Contact: Chris Dauphin
Phone: (615) 585-8490, 800-251-8732
[email protected]

TSEA Executive Director Robert O’Connell to retire in May

Nashville, TN., January 10th, 2014 – After serving four (4) years as the Tennessee State Employees Association’s (TSEA) Executive Director, Robert A. O’Connell has announced plans to retire on May 1st, 2014.

“It has been the greatest honor of my life to have served as your Executive Director and to have done what I could to help and to serve state employees and the people of Tennessee,” O’Connell said in a statement to TSEA members. “I’ve got another four months to go in this chair. There is a lot of work to do and I will continue to have my hands full, up to my last day.”

Executive Director O’Connell, hired as TSEA’s Chief Administrative Officer in the summer of 2010, has been instrumental in helping strengthen and revitalize TSEA, and has worked tirelessly through negotiations over the TEAM Act, a Governor’s election, two legislative elections, and innumerable meetings with commissioners, department heads, and state leaders to ensure state employees were always justly represented.

TSEA President Phil Morson said, “Robert O’Connell has been a valuable leader of TSEA for the past four years. Under his leadership, the association has pulled through extremely challenging economic times and legislative changes. Bob and I have always worked together to design the best course of action for TSEA in these very difficult times. We congratulate him on his retirement, and wish him and his family the very best.”

Prior to his time as Executive Director, O’Connell served as TSEA’s Staff Attorney for four years and was a state employee for twenty-four years as Assistant General Counsel for the Tennessee Department of Health and as Staff Attorney for the Tennessee Department of Mental Health at Clover Bottom Development Center.

As Executive Director, O’Connell also serves on the State Government Insurance Committee and the TRICOR Board of Directors.

TSEA is a nonprofit association existing to provide a strong unified voice with which it advocates the work-related interests of its members. Our goal is to ensure a better life for our members and to attract and retain an effective, efficient state workforce to provide services for all Tennesseans. TSEA was established in 1974. For further information, visit the Web site at www.tseaonline.org.

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