Andrew Keating, the former Bank of Ireland chief financial officer who quit three years ago to join CRH, has left the building materials giant to pursue other opportunities, according to sources.
Mr Keating was director of group finance at CRH, reporting to Jim Mintern, a company veteran of two decades, who took over as group finance director a year ago.
Mr Mintern succeeded Senan Murphy, who also previously worked with Mr Keating at Bank of Ireland.
A spokesman for CRH declined to comment on Mr Keating’s departure, which is said to have taken place at the end of June. Mr Keating did not respond to efforts to secure comment from him.
At the time of the announcement of Mr Keating’s departure from Bank of Ireland in June 2019, the lender complained that State-enforced pay restrictions in Irish banks were hampering its “ability to attract and retain the people we need to run and develop our business”, implying pay may have been a factor in the decision to leave.
The bank has since seen another chief financial officer, Myles O’Grady, depart earlier this year, with its chief executive of five years, Francesca McDonagh, also set to leave the company at the end of this month to take on a senior position at Credit Suisse.
Bank of Ireland has consistently lobbied the Government in recent years, without success, to lift pay restrictions and an effective ban on bonuses across the sector.
Meanwhile, CRH, which is due to report interim results at the end of August, said in April it expected its sales and earnings margins to grow over the first half of 2022, despite significant energy cost volatility and the impact of the ongoing war in Ukraine.
The building materials giant’s sales rose 15 per cent in the first quarter of this year, with each of its three divisions, Americas Materials, Europe Materials and Building Products, turning in strong performances. It followed on from group sales rising 12 per cent over the course of last year to $31 billion (€30.6 billion).
However, shares in the company are down more than 23 per cent so far this year, amid concerns about the global economy.