Big Brothers

WHEN the Quinn clan descends on Roundstone in Connemara this bank holiday weekend lord their annual get together they will have much to celebrate. Lochlann, the eldest of the five brothers has just been named as chairman designate of the country's largest bank, AIB.

Ruairi, the Minister for Finance and third oldest brother, will also be making the trip to Connemara with some good news. He is currently presiding over one of the healthiest set of Government finances seen for the last 30 years.

Also in attendance will be the second oldest brother, Conor, the managing director of advertising agency QMP and the fourth oldest brother Declan, who is a professor of medicine at the University of Saskatchewan in Canada. Colm, the youngest brother will not be making the trip from Brunei, where he is currently working as a doctor.

They will have much to talk about, but Lochlann Quinn's appointment can be expected to dominate the lively after dinner conversations, accompanied, no doubt, by a few celebratory bottles of fine wine.

His acceptance of the chairmanship of AIB, the largest quoted company in the State, will undoubtedly raise Mr Quinn's public profile. Despite working over the last 16 years with Martin Naughton to build Glen Dimplex into a major international electrical appliance manufacturer, Lochlann Quinn's name is not well known.

Apparently, he has been content to be cast in the role of the level-headed accountant playing second fiddle to the company's founder and major shareholder Mr Naughton. He owns 26 per cent of the company and is deputy chairman, while Mr Naughton owns the majority of the remaining shares and is the chairman of the group, which is based in Dunleer, Co Louth.

As chairman of AIB, Mr Quinn will quite definitely be playing first violin. He has little experience of such a role in the plc sphere. He freely admits that his experience of public company boards is limited to the 14 months that he has been a director of AIB.

But Mr Quinn can point to his 16 years experience as a chartered accountant, particularly as partner in charge of the audit practice of Arthur Andersen in Dublin; the position he occupied before joining Mr Naughton at Glen Dimplex in 1980.

In any case, it was not Mr Quinn's experience of the niceties of Irish plc board room politics that recommended him for the job. AIB, in common with the whole financial sector, is facing a period of intense change, even by the standards of the ever-changing world of global financial markets. The bank must deal with the consequences of the introduction of the single currency, which is predicted to cost Irish banks £100 million a year in lost foreign exchange earnings. EMU will also require a significant reorganisation of banking practice which will shrink work forces giving rise to possible job losses.

AIB may have to make a significant acquisition in order to maintain the level of growth achieved over the last five years. But acquisitions and strategic planning are areas in which Mr Quinn excels. The extraordinary growth of Glen Dimplex testifies to his and Mr Naughton's skills in this area.

Set up by Mr Naughton in 1977 with a second mortgage on his £60,000 home, it now has turnover of £350 million and operations in Germany, the Netherlands, Canada, Australia and the US.

Mr Quinn is relaxed about his new job and its attendant responsibilities. "There is never one crucial decision to be made. It is just part of an ongoing process," he says.

He is also clear about his role in this process. "These are tasks facing the management. I am not running the bank," explains Mr Quinn. His role, along with the rest of the board, is to satisfy themselves that the management, led by chief executive Tom Mulcahy, is doing a good job but not to get involved in detailed strategy, he believes.

Even such a hands-off approach will still require a substantial amount of his time. Previous chairmen of the bank have spent up to three days a week attending to their duties.

Mr Quinn says he has no plans to reduce his commitment to Glen Dimplex. However, the management of the group and its subsidiaries has been strengthened in recent years, which has reduced his work load. Earlier this year Mr Brendan Murphy was appointed director of finance and Mr Sean O'Driscoll was appointed deputy chief executive and finance director.

The bulk of Mr Quinn's time at the moment is spent on the joint venture with Mr Naughton and the Hastings Hotel group to build a £25 million luxury hotel opposite Government Buildings on Merrion Street, which is due to open next spring. However, the appointment of Mr Peter McCann as general manager of the hotel last June means that Mr Quinn's involvement in this project is also being wound down.

The new duties at AIB are unlikely to prevent Mr Quinn enjoying his other interests outside business, which are centred on his wife and his six children; four boys and two girls aged between 10 and 26.

Almost universally described as good company, he socialises primarily with friends made at school in Blackrock College and at UCD, where he studied Commerce. He played rugby for Blackrock, but not with the success of his younger brother Ruairi who won a senior cup medal. However, along with his brother Conor he represented Ireland at table tennis while at UCD.

After college he opted for a career in accountancy rather than in the family grocery business, which included the Payantake chain. This chain was successfully carried on by his cousin Feargal to form the basis of Superquinn.

Although he is deeply interested in politics, Mr Quinn has kept his political allegiance a close secret. While coming from a strongly republican background, Lochlann Quinn has eschewed any direct involvement in the political arena.

Art is one of his passions. He has a well-known collection of 20th Century Irish art and is on the board of the Irish Museum of Modern Art. Mr Quinn is also something of wine buff and will no doubt take a keen interest in AIB's already well-stocked cellar.

He also finds time to play some golf. This bank holiday Monday will see the playing of an annual four ball between Mr Quinn, his brother Conor, Dublin businessman and former Progressive Democrat TD Mr Pat O'Malley and the Dublin solicitor Hugh Carty.

Mr Quinn will be hoping to repeat his success of last year in winning the annual needle match. "He is a very competitive player," according to one of the protagonists