After nine years as head of corporate communications, Dan Loughrey has decided to take his leave of Bank of Ireland. He will depart in February but is keeping mum on his next move. “I have plans but . . . it won’t be communications as we know it,” he told me.

Loughrey started his career in October 1972 with the Revenue Commissioners, becoming its first press officer in 1987. He began a 12-year stint with Aer Lingus in 1992. During this time there were 10 changes of chief executive and a certain event called 9/11. “I just remember us having a lot of planes in the air in mid-Atlantic wondering if we’d be able to land them,” he recalls.

For much of the past four years Bank of Ireland has been in crisis management mode from the fallout of the global credit crunch and the domestic economic crash.

Whatever he does next should be a walk in the park by comparison.