FORMER KERRY group chief executive Denis Brosnan has stepped down as chairman of healthcare company Barchester.
Filings for Barchester Healthcare show that Mr Brosnan, who is also an investor in the company, has been replaced by Baroness Margaret Ford.
The nursing home company, which is backed by JP McManus, Dermot Desmond and John Magnier, is one of the largest private healthcare companies in the UK.
Founded in 1993, Barchester Healthcare houses more than 10,000 residents at more than 200 facilities across Britain. The group operates nursing homes, respite care centres and speciality centres for people with dementia.
Barchester also operates one facility in Ireland, the Knightsbridge retirement home in Trim, Co Meath, which opened in 2008.
At that time, the group indicated it planned to open up to 20 centres across Ireland, including sites at Limerick, Dún Laoghaire, and Wicklow.
Former EU commissioner Charlie McCreevy was appointed to the Barchester board late last year. As well as serving on the board of Ryanair, Mr McCreevy is a director of WorldSpreads, the spreadbetting company which collapsed last month in the UK.
Other Irish board members of Barchester include John Bateson, finance director at Dermot Desmond’s IIU, Prof John Hegarty and Edward Irwin, finance director of Coolmore Stud.
The most recently filed accounts for Barchester Healthcare show that pretax profits rose by a third in 2010 to £40.8 million (€49.5 million). Revenues were £432.7 million (€525 million), up from £413 million the previous year.
