Two directors appointed by AIB

AIB has appointed two new non-executive directors to its board. The bank announced yesterday that Ms Jenny Winter and Mr Kieran Crowley would join the board with immediate effect.

Ms Winter is chief executive of Barretstown Ireland, founded by Paul Newman, which for the past 10 years has been offering residential breaks for children with serious illness. Previously, she was a vice-president with GlaxoSmithKline Pharmaceuticals UK and managing director of SmithKline Beecham Ireland.

Mr Crowley is a former chairman of IBEC's Small Firms' Association and a member of the employer lobby's national executive council. A consultant and chartered accountant, he is founder of Crowley Services Dublin, which holds the franchise in Ireland for drain and sewer clearing group Dyno-Rod.

The appointments are the first since the publication of an interim report on charging in excess of notified rates at Ireland's largest bank.

They join Mr Eugene Ludwig, whose appointment to the board to advise on the adequacy and appropriateness of the bank's actions in relation to all relevant control, risk, compliance and governance issues was announced at the time the bank published details of the report.

Investigations into how the bank overcharged customers since 1995 without it coming to the attention of the regulator, and into a separate affair involving senior bank executives and an offshore account in the name of British Virgin Islands company Faldor are still ongoing.

The appointments bring the number of non-executives on the 16-strong board of AIB to 12. Ms Carol Moffett, a non-executive director since 1995 stepped down from the board last month at the end of her term.