Anglo Irish appoints seven internal candidates to senior roles in bank

STATE-OWNED Anglo Irish Bank has appointed seven internal candidates to senior roles at the bank, leaving just two crucial roles on the bank’s interim management team yet to be filled.

The appointments follow the departures of senior executives who had reported to former chief executive David Drumm and who helped to manage Anglo since it was nationalised last January.

Three senior staff retain their existing roles, while four of the appointments are to positions on the interim management team, which will manage Anglo pending the European Commission review of the bank’s restructuring plan submitted at the end of last month.

All seven will report directly to Mike Aynsley, who took over as chief executive last September.

Two remaining positions on the interim management team – head of finance and head of financial markets – have yet to be filled.

Anglo has appointed Jim Brydie to the new role of head of lending. Mr Brydie joined Anglo in 2007 and was responsible initially for lending in Scotland and later across the UK.

In his new role he will be responsible for lending in Ireland, Britain and the US, putting him in charge of Declan Quilligan, head of Anglo’s UK operations to whom he had reported in his previous job.

Mr Aynsley told staff in an internal e-mail yesterday that Mr Brydie is “expected to provide leadership and direction across the lending division of the bank to ensure that its future strategy is both appropriate and effective in the creation of shareholder value”.

Aidan Long, who joined Anglo in 2005, takes over as head of technology and operations, while Peter Fitzgerald, who has been with Anglo for 10 years, has become head of retail funding.

Anglo’s head of human resources, Sean Fitzpatrick (who is no relation to the bank’s former chairman of the same name), will retain the same role on the interim team.

He was appointed the bank’s human resources director in 2006.

Among the other appointments reporting to Mr Aynsley is Lizanne White, who becomes head of legal.

Ms White, a solicitor, joined Anglo in 2008 after working with Dublin law firm AL Goodbody.

Walter Tyrrell has been confirmed as Anglo’s head of group internal audit, a role he has held since 2005.

Company secretary Natasha Mercer, who joined Anglo in 1999, will remain in that job which she has held since 2007.

The seven appointments that were announced yesterday join external candidates Tom Hunersen, a US consultant who became head of corporate development last week, and former Citibank executive Peter Rossiter, who was appointed chief risk officer last month.

Another appointee to the interim management team, Niall Tuite, an internal candidate, has taken charge of the unit liaising with the National Asset Management Agency (Nama), which will acquire €28 billion in property and associated loans from the bank.