THE Irish Trade Board has appointed Mr Oliver Tattan, a senior company executive living in Germany, as its new chief executive.

Mr Tattan (31) will take up his position in September succeeding the current chief executive Mr Alan McCarthy, it said yesterday. Mr McCarthy announced earlier this year that he would leave the semi state body this year to pursue other interests. Mr Tattan is the first executive from the private sector to head up the Trade Board and has been on a five year contract. His remuneration package will be performance related, based on the achievement of export growth targets set by Minister for Trade and Tourism. Its quest to find a new chief executive the Trade Board approached a number of senior Irish executives to consider the job.

The announcement from the board gave no details of Mr Tattan's current employment but The Irish Times has learned he is general manager of division of the German engineering, company, Heraeus, which employs 100 people.

He holds a degree in engineering from University College Dublin and has an MBA from Insead in Paris. He is married with two children.