MR John Meagher will succeed Mr Ken O'Reilly Hyland as chairman of Eureko Ireland on July 1st. Eureko is the holding company of the life and general insurers, Friends Provident and Celtic International.

Mr Meagher (right) has been on the Friends Provident and Eureko Ireland boards since 1989. He is deputy chairman of Independent Newspapers, chairman of Irish Marketing Surveys Group and a director of Arcon International Resources. Eureko Ireland has assets of £965 million and is part of the Amsterdam based Eureko group.