The Irish Farmers Journal understands that FBD’s chief commercial officer, Jim Ryan, has left FBD less than 12 months into the job.

The former banker joined last May to drive sales at the insurer and it is now understood he departed the company a number of weeks ago. He was second in command to chief executive Fiona Muldoon.

The news of Ryan’s recent departure was not brought up by the company or board at the AGM last Friday. The Irish Farmers Journal understands Ryan has taken up a senior role with competitor AA Insurance.

A strong CV

Ryan came with a depth of experience in sales having spent time as head of sales at Adidas Ireland and Irish Biscuits and was also a sales director at Eircom.

Before joining FBD, he was branch banking managing director at Ulster Bank, where he oversaw 1,300 employees across 110 branches.

The group returned to profit last year recording an underwriting profit of €3.2m. However, despite average premiums increasing 9%, policy volumes continued to decrease and fell a further 5% during the year.

It remains unclear why Ryan left the role so early while the company remains tight-lipped about his departure. The move will surprise many as the insurer tries to turn itself around.

Important role

The commercial role was key at the insurer, having only recently rebranded, while also scrapping the No Nonsense insurance brand and bringing all insurance under the FBD brand. The group has also recently completed development of a state-of-the-art IT system to better serve its operations and customers.

FBD has come in for some criticism in recent months which was relayed at the annual meeting of shareholders last Friday, where many dissenting voices questioned the governance surrounding the bonus structure and salary level of the CEO.

In February, it was revealed that Muldoon was paid a bonus of €315,000, effectively seeing her salary double to almost €900,000 in 2016.

Meanwhile, shareholders have not seen any dividend for 2016 and the board has indicated that it will not pay a dividend in 2017 until profits are at a sustainable level and its capital base is strengthened.

The AGM also saw longstanding chair Michael Berkery step down and retire from the board after 30 years at the helm. Former Glanbia chair Liam Herlihy now takes over the €127,000 per annum role and is the first new chair of the company in 20 years. Herlihy joined the board in 2015.

Changing guards

IFA president Joe Healy, who is also a director of Farmer Business Developments, the original FBD co-op, will join the board of FBD plc in the coming weeks.

FBD will then see three seats held by farmers (Joe Healy, Padraig Walshe and Liam Herlihy) out of 11 on the board.

Unusually for a plc, none of the senior executives hold shares in the company and only three board members, Padraig Walshe, Liam Herlihy and David O’Connor, hold shares.

The FBD share price has recovered over the last 12 months, hitting new highs of €8.50 on Friday, a 30% increase on a year earlier. However, still a long way off the highs of €17 enjoyed by shareholders three years ago and a fraction of the €45 hit 10 years ago.

Read more

Full coverage: FBD