Incoming NTMA chief executive to get 15% pay boost

The incoming chief executive of the National Treasury Management Agency (NTMA), Conor O'Kelly, will be paid a salary of €480,000, some 15 per cent more than his predecessor John Corrigan has earned in each of the past three years.

Mr O’Kelly will also be eligible to participate in a “non-pensionable, discretionary, performance-related pay arrangement”, a spokesman for the NTMA has confirmed.

He said the details of the bonus scheme and "criteria to be applied will be determined" by the incoming NTMA board in consultation with the Minister for Finance Michael Noonan.

Pension plan contribution

The NTMA will also make an 18 per cent of salary contribution to Mr O’Kelly’s defined-contribution pension plan and his package will include a payment to cover health insurance.

Mr Corrigan, who will step down from his role on January 4th, agreed to a voluntary 15 per cent reduction in his salary from €490,000 to €416,500 in 2012 and he has been paid this amount each year since then. In addition he received taxable benefits of €29,129.

He was a member of the public sector’s defined-benefit superannuation pension scheme and so did not receive an annual pension payment, as will be the case with Mr O’Kelly.

Performance-related payment

Mr Corrigan’s package also included a performance-related payment of up to 80 per cent of his salary but the agency’s latest annual report shows that he waived this in both 2012 and 2013.

Mr O'Kelly is a former chief executive of NCB Stockbrokers and current deputy chairman of Investec Holdings. His appointment on a five-year contract followed an extensive search process carried out on the Minister's behalf by the NTMA advisory committee, chaired by airline boss Willie Walsh.

Commenting on the appointment, Mr Noonan stated: “I am very pleased to be able to appoint an individual of Mr O’Kelly’s calibre to lead the NTMA. The NTMA is a critical part of the State’s financial infrastructure and Mr O’Kelly and the new NTMA Board will have a central role to play as Ireland builds on its recovery in the coming years.”

Mr Noonan also thanked Mr Corrigan “for his leadership of the NTMA and for his counsel to me during an extremely challenging period in Ireland’s recent history”.

“The NTMA, under John’s leadership, has made a very significant contribution to Ireland’s recovery, most notably through the role it played in Ireland’s successful exit from the EU/IMF programme and in regaining access to the sovereign bond markets,” Mr Noonan added.

'Honoured and delighted'

Mr O’Kelly said he was “honoured and delighted” to be chosen as the next chief executive of the NTMA.

“It is an organisation that is held in the highest regard both domestically and internationally and I look forward to building on its success and that of its current CEO John Corrigan in the years ahead,” he added.

In 2003, Mr O’Kelly successfully negotiated and led a management buyout of NCB, which was subsequently sold to South African financial group Investec.

Before joining NCB, where he was also head of fixed income, Mr O’Kelly held senior management positions in investment banking with Barclays Capital in London, Tokyo and New York.