IRISH NATIONWIDE has recruited Gerry McGinn, current head of Goodbody Stockbrokers in Northern Ireland, to become the new chief executive of the building society.
The building society said in a statement Mr McGinn (52) would “take up his appointment in the near future” and that he had “extensive experience in financial services as well as at the most senior level in the Civil Service”.
Prior to joining Goodbody, Mr McGinn worked in the Northern Ireland civil service for six years.
He was permanent secretary of the Department of Education before taking up the same role at the Department of Regional Development in December 2005. He moved to Goodbody in May 2007.
He previously spent 18 years at Bank of Ireland, working in Dublin, Belfast and London, and he was chief executive of its UK operations. During his time at the bank he led the merger of the bank’s operations in Northern Ireland and Britain.
Irish Nationwide said Mr McGinn’s appointment was one of several being made by the building society “to strengthen its management team”. It follows the appointment of John McGloughlin as chief financial officer in April.
The Financial Regulator directed the society last January to bolster its management team.
Irish Nationwide is planning to strengthen the board of the building society by appointing a further three executives to complement the existing executive members of the society’s board.
Mr McGinn takes over from Michael Fingleton who stepped down at the end of April after 37 years running the building society following mounting pressure over the payment of a €1 million bonus, which he later repaid, and his €27.6 million pension scheme.
Irish Nationwide chairman Danny Kitchen has been serving as acting chief executive of the building society since Mr Fingleton’s departure. A spokesman for the building society said Mr Kitchen or Mr McGinn were unavailable to comment beyond the statement.
Mr Kitchen turned down the position of chief executive, whose salary has been capped at €360,000 by the Government-appointed remuneration committee determining bankers’ pay.
He said last month that “five or six” candidates had been interviewed for the position of chief executive and that the reduced salary should not deter anyone.
Irish Nationwide posted a pretax loss of €280 million in 2008 after writing off €464 million on bad loans, primarily to the property development sector.
The building society has about €4 billion in development loans out of a loan book of €10 billion.
These loans and associated borrowings on assets provided as collateral are expected to be sold to the State “bad bank”, the National Asset Management Agency.
