International estate agent, Savills, has appointed Roland O’Connell as new chairman of its Irish operations. O’Connell who has been with Savills for 33 years is a veteran of the Dublin commercial property market and has extensive experience letting headquarter offices for high profile muiltinationals investing here.

He takes over the role from Larry Brennan who will now look after the transactional commercial division at Savills Ireland. Recently O'Connell secured the letting of city centre headquarters to Facebook and Yahoo! He is also a past-president of the Society of Chartered Surveyors Ireland, a representative organisation for property agents.

Savills has 250 staff in Ireland with offices in Dublin, Cork and Belfast.