One of Northern Ireland's top bankers has announced plans to resign as chief executive of Bank of Ireland in the North and take up a senior position with the Department of Education. Mr Gerry McGinn, a career banker, will in September become the next permanent secretary at the Department of Education where the Minister is Sinn Fein's Mr Martin McGuinness.
Mr McGinn is well known in financial circles and his decision to move has surprised the banking industry in the North.
The Northern Ireland Assembly has been keen to attract senior industry figures into government. Although a number of senior civil servants, notably Sir David Fell, chairman of Northern Bank, have left public life to take up high-profile roles in industry, Mr McGinn is the first to reverse the trend.
In a statement, Mr McGinn said his decision to leave the Bank of Ireland reflected his wish to live and work in Northern Ireland and to pursue his interest in public service.
He is a member of the senate of Queen's University Belfast and is the current chairman of the advisory board of the Faculty of Business and Management at the University of Ulster.
During the last two years he has been at the forefront of the creation of a UK banking unit which involved the merger of the bank's businesses in Britain and Northern Ireland.
