IRISH LIFE and Permanent chairman Gillian Bowler has said she will retire next year following the appointment of a successor. Her retirement marks the departure of the last of the bank chairmen who were in office when the banking crisis struck in 2008.
Ms Bowler, who was appointed in 2004, told the company’s board and the Central Bank of the decision on Tuesday. ILP has started the process to find her successor.
A shortlist of up to nine international candidates has been drawn up, she said, and a number of existing board members at IL&P are interested in the job.
The company said a new chairman would be identified as early as possible in 2011. Ms Bowler’s six-year term expired last May but she agreed to stay on for another year.
She said it would not be good for corporate governance at IL&P if she were to remain as chairwoman for another year.
Kevin Murphy, IL&P chief executive, said she “played a very important role in helping the group to navigate the crisis of recent years and I don’t think any chairman of an Irish financial institution enjoyed a better relationship with their small shareholders.
“They appreciated her for her plain-speaking and accessibility and she always respected them as the key to the group’s ongoing success,” he said.
Ms Bowler told The Irish Timesshe had always intended to stand down once the company had completed its plan to split Permanent TSB from Irish Life and dispose of the banking division following a rights issue of new shares to fund the move.
However, the delay in the sale process of EBS building society and an intensification of the financial crisis had meant there wasn’t “a window of opportunity”.
She had come under pressure to stand down in February 2009 following the disclosure that IL&P had supported Anglo Irish Bank with short-term deposits of €7 billion over the end of Anglo’s year-end on September 30th, 2008, which made Anglo look healthier on the day its annual results were taken.
The transactions led to the resignations of IL&P chief executive Denis Casey, finance director Peter FitzPatrick and head of treasury David Gantly. Ms Bowler, who has said she was unaware of the transactions at the time, offered her resignation in February 2009 but it was declined by the board. Ms Bowler apologised unreservedly for the deposits at Anglo the following month, saying that they were wrong.
