US consultant joins Anglo team

ANGLO IRISH Bank has installed US consultant Tom Hunersen as head of corporate development in the first appointment by chief executive Mike Aynsley to the bank’s new executive team.

Mr Hunersen will be part of the bank’s 10-strong interim team which will run Anglo, pending the European Commission’s approval of the bank’s restructuring plan which was submitted last month.

Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan and the Financial Regulator approved the appointment.

In an e-mail to staff, Mr Aynsley, an Australian banker, said Mr Hunersen had worked with the bank since late September overseeing the management of loans to the bank’s executives and large borrowers as well as working on the bank’s restructuring plan. Mr Hunersen spent 14 years at National Australia Bank, (NAB) where Mr Aynsley was also a long-standing executive. He worked in corporate banking, risk management and wholesale financial services in the UK, the US and Australia. More recently, he has worked for an investment and consulting firm, CKW Ventures.

Anglo plans to restructure into a good and bad bank, reinventing itself as the lender to small and medium-sized enterprises (SME).

In his new role Mr Hunersen will develop a strategy for the “evolving business”, said Mr Aynsley, adding that “his expertise in restructuring and developing businesses will be important” for the bank as it develops its new business and works through approval of its restructuring plan.

Mr Aynsley has also hired Tanya Styblo Beder, a US risk management and strategy consultant at New York-based SBCC Group, to advise him on his work at Anglo.

In a separate development, the Director of Corporate Enforcement will apply to the High Court today to retain seized documents from its investigation at Anglo for a longer period of time.