ProfileThe former chief executive of NIB, Mr Jim Lacey, was appointed to the position in 1988 and led a publicity campaign aimed at raising the bank's profile.
A B.Comm graduate from University College Dublin, he worked in Coopers and Lybrand and ACC Bank before joining Northern Bank in 1983. When the bank's owners split the company, Mr Lacey was appointed to the top position in National Irish Bank.
In November 1993 Mr Lacey's family was taken hostage by a Dublin criminal gang and released after he handed over £243,000 from the bank's vaults.
The following April he was sacked by the bank's Australian owners. He was later given up to £1 million in compensation. He has long-standing connections with Fianna Fáil and is a friend of the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern.
In March 1998 Mr Lacey stood down as chairman of the Irish Aviation Authority and as a director of the Dublin Docklands Development Authority in the wake of the scandals at NIB.
He also resigned his position as chairman of Forum 2000, a body that raises money for Fianna Fáil from the business community.
In September 1999, during the Dáil Public Accounts Committee hearings into DIRT, he rejected the charge that there was "slack enforcement" of bank regulations during his tenure at NIB.
