Quinn Group directors step down

Five directors have left the board of Quinn Group (ROI) Ltd since the end of April, the Irish Times reports.

The company is the vehicle for the Quinn family’s shareholding in the main Quinn Group company but has no operational role, the paper said.

According to documents lodged recently with the Companies Office, the directors who have stepped down include: Quinn Group chief executive Liam McCaffrey; former GAA president Peter Quinn, who is a brother of Seán Quinn; and non-executives Brendan Tuohy and Pat O’Neill.

But the company has appointed David Mackey as a non-executive director. Mackey is chief executive of Cavan-based property development group P Elliott & Co, and formerly chief executive of Quinn Group.

The Quinn Group said in a statement that the board changes were aimed at “effecting the separation of the personal interests of the Quinn family from those of Quinn Group Ltd."

This will allow the Quinn family to pursue proposals to potentially acquire Quinn Insurance Ltd, which is in administration, at arms length from the operation of the wider Quinn Group and, thereby, avoid a potential conflict of interests.

The changes are thought to have been influenced by Murdoch McKillop, a corporate restructuring expert who recently joined the board of Quinn Group.

The majority of the resignations took place on April 28th, when McCaffrey, Tuohy, O’Neill, Dara O’Reilly, Quinn Group’s finance director, and Paddy Murphy all resigned from the board of Quinn Group (ROI).

However on May 11th, O’Reilly was reappointed to the board of the company. Two days later Peter Quinn resigned from the board of Quinn Group (ROI) Ltd, leaving five directors on the board of Quinn Group ROI – founder and chairman Seán Quinn and his wife Patricia, Mackey, O’Reilly, and Kevin Lunney.