Gleeson seen as clean face during scandals

VIEWED by many as the clean and acceptable face of AIB during many of the scandals that hit it in the early part of this decade – from the rogue trader fraud case in its US operations to the overcharging of customers in its retail banking operations here – Dermot Gleeson had a busy tenure as chairman of the country’s biggest bank.

The respected reputation that the 60-year-old Mr Gleeson brought with him to AIB was built on a varied and colourful career up to being appointed to the bank’s board in 2000 and being made chairman of the group three years later.

A qualified barrister, the former attorney general has also been chairman of the review body on higher remuneration in the public sector and chair of the Irish Council for Bioethics (not to mention a former director of Dublin’s Gate Theatre) and is currently also a member of the Adjunct Law Faculty of University College Dublin and chairman of University College Cork’s governing body.