BELFAST-born Tony Danker is reportedly planning to sue the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) over his sacking for complaints against his alleged behaviour.
The former CBI chief, who joined the business body in November 2020 to succeed Carolyn Fairbairn, was sacked in April.
Danker (51), who is married with two sons, is understood to be consulting lawyers.
In January, he argued that the allegations of misconduct, including sexual harassment, were unfounded, insisting there had been no sexual element to his relationship with a woman who complained about him.
Danker said it was "mortifying to hear that I have caused offence or anxiety to any colleague" but insisted it was "completely unintentional".
In a statement announcing his dismissal, the CBI said Danker’s conduct had “fallen short of that expected of the director general.”
In an interview with the BBC in May, Harvard-educated Danker said his "reputation has been totally destroyed" after being fired over complaints about his behaviour.
He admitted he may have made some staff feel "very uncomfortable", for which he apologised, but said his name had been wrongly associated with separate claims, including rape, that allegedly occurred at the CBI before he joined.
In his interview with the BBC Mr Danker admitted that he looked at the Instagram profiles and stories of "a very small number of CBI staff, men and women".
"The CBI already knew that some people thought that that was intrusive, and I get that," he said.
"I get that people felt that it was wrong, that I was looking at their admittedly completely public Instagram stories", he added.
Mr Danker also acknowledged he had messaged around 200 individual staff members, but said it was part of building "rapport" during lockdown as well as with colleagues who continue to work from home.
He said these messages said things such as: ''Hi, how are you? How was your weekend? Show me pictures of your dogs or your babies".
But he believed some people had thought the messages inappropriate, and they had not realised Mr Danker had "been doing this to everyone to try and build rapport."
He also said that the invitations to junior staff for lunches and breakfasts were part of a CBI mentoring scheme called the Shadowing Programme. Mr Danker said both male and female employees were invited by him to discuss their careers.
