Eight months after quitting her role as director of credit institutions and insurance supervision at the Central Bank of Ireland, Fiona Muldoon has moved to the other side of the fence by accepting an appointment as group finance director of Irish listed insurer FBD Holdings.
Ms Muldoon will join the company on January 19th in a designate capacity before formally taking up the role following the publication of the company’s full-year results on March 2nd. She will also become a member of FBD’s board of directors.
She will succeed Cathal O’Caoimh, who has decided to retire from a full-time executive role. FBD said Mr O’Caoimh would remain on the board and lead a number of “strategic projects”, including the implementation of a new policy administration system in its underwriting subsidiary. Ms Muldoon said FBD was a good fit for her career.
“I like the franchise and I like the fact that it’s an Irish listed company,” she said. “I also know the insurance industry reasonably well.”
Last summer
Ms Muldoon said that her discussions with FBD began last summer.
Ms Muldoon, who is a chartered accountant, was director of credit institutions and insurance supervision at the Central Bank of Ireland from August 2011 to May 2014.
That would have included supervising FBD. Before that role, she was with XL Group for 17 years and held a number of senior roles with the NYSE-listed property and casualty insurance firm in Ireland, London and Bermuda. This included two years as group treasurer until July 2010.
FBD experienced a turbulent trading year in 2014. The company issued two profit warnings due to “unprecedented volatility” in claims costs, relating to storms and a spike in motor claims.
Operating loss
On November 11th, it reduced the forecast result for the final quarter of the year by €10 million and guided a full-year operating loss per share of zero to 10 cent, excluding any exceptional events that may arise.
Its share price collapsed by 18 per cent on the day of that announcement.
Some €177 million was wiped off its market value over the course of last year.
Commenting on the appointment, FBD's chairman Michael Berkery said: "I am pleased to announce Fiona's appointment. She is a dynamic individual with tremendous experience at a leadership level in the general insurance industry and I look forward to her contribution to the development of the group."
