David McCarthy, the former finance director of Irish Life who went on to become a senior executive at the group’s Canadian parent, died suddenly last week. He was 61.
Mr McCarthy, of Drumcondra in north Dublin, died on December 29th, according to a notice on RIP.ie. It is understood that he had been ill for a short time.
Mr McCarthy trained as an accountant with Coopers & Lybrand, now part of PwC, in the late 1980s, before moving in 1990 to Dublin-based private bank Guinness & Mahon Ireland, where he became chief executive two years later.
Following the takeover of Guinness & Mahon by Irish Life & Permanent (IL&P) in 1994, he became chief financial officer of the wider group.
Mr McCarthy was appointed finance director of IL&P at the height of the financial crisis in 2009, before moving with Irish Life when the State took over this part of the group in 2012 for €1.3 billion. The life and pensions business was split from its then sister company, Permanent TSB (PTSB), following the bank’s €4 billion taxpayer bailout.
Irish Life was acquired by Canada-based Great-West Lifeco for €1.3 billion in 2013. Mr McCarthy was subsequently appointed as executive vice-president and deputy chief financial officer of Great-West Lifeco in 2015.
The well-respected executive is survived by his wife, Celia, and son, Stephen.
