Highmark settles with former CEO over his firing

Highmark Inc. and its former president and CEO, Kenneth Melani, reached an out-of-court settlement to end a yearlong legal battle over his firing.

Neither Highmark nor Melani would discuss the terms.

“I'm very thankful for their willingness to sit and talk and listen and end this amicably,” Melani said Tuesday.

Aaron Billger, a spokesman for Highmark, wrote in an email to the Tribune-Review that “the matter has been resolved to the mutual satisfaction of the parties, and the basis of the resolution is confidential.”

Court documents filed Thursday in Allegheny County Common Pleas Court indicated the case was resolved. The documents did not detail the settlement agreement.

Melani was fired in 2012, a week after a fistfight with the estranged husband of his then-girlfriend, Melissa Myler, a Highmark business analyst. Melani on Tuesday would not comment on his relationship with Myler.

Melani sued Highmark for more than $32 million in March 2015, alleging the health insurer owed him $25.85 million in severance and pension payments and that Highmark fired him because he refused to fire Myler.

Highmark maintained that the company fired Melani for cause and argued that Melani should seek severance and pension payments through an arbitration process spelled out in company agreements, according to court documents.

Melani worked for Highmark for 23 years and made $3.9 million in salary, bonuses and other pay in 2012. In July 2012, he told the Tribune-Review that the altercation at Myler's estranged husband's Oakmont home left him feeling ostracized from the community.

On Tuesday, Melani said he has started a private equity company in Pittsburgh that is investing in health-related start-ups.

Aaron Aupperlee is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach him at 412-320-7986 or aaupperlee@tribweb.com.