Voice of Experience: Elaine Sarsynski, Executive Vice President, MassMutual’s Retirement Services Division and Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, MassMutual International LLC

By Tina Vasquez (Los Angeles)

Technically, Massachusetts is in very close proximity to the bright lights and big city that is New York, but the small town of Hadley, where Elaine Sarsynski, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of MassMutual International and Executive Vice President and head of MassMutual’s Retirement Services business, called her home couldn’t have felt farther away. Sarsynski is currently the top ranked female executive at the company and was recently named one of the Top 15 Women in Business by PINK Magazine. But her attraction to business and her early understanding of its most basic concepts actually came as a result of working on her parent’s 60-acre vegetable farm.

“Working on the farm exposed me to the business side of things very early on,” Sarsynski said. “I can remember being a little kid and listening to my parents discuss things like venture capital, wholesale, and investment strategies at the dinner table and I soaked it all up. My mother was actually an astute business woman and was always thinking of clever ways to grow the business and make it profitable. I decided early on that I wanted to be a business woman, too, but I didn’t know it would ever actually take me off the farm.”

Sarsynski’s big chance came when she was just a junior at Smith College majoring in economics. One day, MassMutual came to her campus offering “a Day at MassMutual” to young women interested in the financial services industry. The young college student was eventually chosen to participate in the visit to corporate headquarters and upon making her entrance to MassMutual’s beautiful building, Sarsynski immediately knew she wanted to work at the company someday.

Though it would take nearly 30 years for her to finally make her way to this long-standing and respected financial institution, it would prove to be worth the wait. Sarsynski is only the second woman in the company’s 160-year history to be named Executive Vice President.

Achieving a Lifelong Goal

After graduating from Smith, Sarsynski worked at Morgan Stanley and attended business school at Columbia University before spending the next eighteen years at Aetna Life and Casualty, leading the corporate finance department, real estate investment, and mortgage finance operations. In 2005 she joined MassMutual and was finally able to walk through the picturesque lobby of the company’s building – not as an awe-struck young woman, but as an experienced, senior-level member of the MassMutual executive team.

Though the recession has seemed to hit the retirement industry hard and provided new challenges, there doesn’t seem to be a single thing that Sarsynski doesn’t genuinely enjoy about her job. From selling employer-sponsored retirement plans such as defined benefit and 401(k) plans, to executing robust growth strategies, the buck stops at her desk and she plays a major role in each and every facet of MassMutual’s retirement services business.

“Enthusiasm must be part of my DNA; I still really love what I do and I think it comes through. I know this sounds crazy, but on Sunday night I’m looking forward to Monday and the upcoming work week. If I weren’t excited anymore, I would get a different job. I really enjoy getting close to customers and meeting with advisors,” Sarsynski said. “I really enjoy talking to people and encouraging them to work with us because I believe in our services and how they can help ensure a person’s financial security as they get older. I want to make sure they’re aware of all the tools available for their retirement planning and that they’re taking advantage of them.”

An Enthusiastic Approach to Work

Studies show that the financial services industry is exceptionally hard on women, especially as it pertains to work/life balance issues, and though the fifty-two-year-old does her best, sometimes she finds it difficult to maintain a balance with such an unpredictable schedule.

Even though she’s in the office at eight each morning, there’s no telling where the day will take the mother of three. Some days she can make it home in time for dinner, but many times she finds herself traveling for sales finals or spending several nights out a week attending business dinners and meetings. Once at home the work doesn’t stop, either. Each night for about an hour Sarsynski pours over periodicals and websites trying to stay up to date and in tune with the latest news on the industry and the economy. Nothing less should be expected of a woman who takes her work very seriously.

“I’ve had a very wonderful career,” she said. “I’m privileged to be where I am and respectful of the executive VP position to which I have been appointed. I take the title and all of the responsibilities that go along with it very seriously.”

According to Sarsynski, much of her success can be attributed to her tenacity and perseverance, skills she honed as a First Selectman in Suffield, CT. “That experience really prepared me for the corporate environment,” she said. “I learned how necessary it is to always look for alternative solutions and to be creative before deciding to head down a set path.”

The height that Sarsynski has reached is still rare for any professional woman, especially in the financial services industry. Ever the enthusiast; however, Sarsynski actually has a very uplifting view on the perceived difficulties of working women.

“Statistics obviously show that women have a harder time attaining a high level of success in the corporate world, but I like to think of it like this: Women don’t have a harder time, they just have a different way of expressing their business tendencies,” she said. “As I was working my way up I was lucky enough to have a variety of experiences in finance. The scariest part for all of us is the risk of trying something new, that’s why I encourage young women coming into this industry to do things that take them out of their comfort zone. By exploring different roles, women can discover new abilities they never knew they had and all resulting experiences – good or bad – provide a platform for the next step up the ladder.”