Bill Kyle, an executive vice president with Great-West Lifeco,  the Canadian life assurance group is to assume the role of group chief executive of Irish Life, replacing Kevin Murphy who retires at the end of this month.

Mr Kyle will take up the position following the completion of the merger of Irish Life with Great-West's other Irish entity, Canada Life, which is expected to take place over the coming weeks. Great-West Lifeco acquired Irish Life for €1.3 billion in February of this year.

Mr Kyle has been associated with Great-West Life and its subsidiaries for 34 years. He graduated from the University of Waterloo with a Bachelor of Science degree and joined London Life in 1979 in an employee benefits sales role. Over the past two decades, he has led Great-West’s group retirement business as it has grown from C$3 billion (€2.2bn) to over C$35 billion in assets.

Most recently, he led the integration of Great-West’s group and individual wealth businesses, which now serve more than two million Canadian policyholders with over C$88 billion in assets. Mr Kyle has worked extensively with Canadian regulators over the years, including helping to draft the guidelines that govern the capital accumulation business in Canada. He has also been a very active participant in the Canadian retirement reform debate.

Ruairi O’Flynn, current managing director of Canada Life Ireland, will retire in 2014.