A round-up of today's other stories in brief.
ESRI director to stand down at year-end
The director of the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI), Prof Brendan Whelan, will stand down at the end of this year, the ESRI announced yesterday.
Prof Whelan has been director of the ESRI since 1996. He has worked in the ESRI since leaving University College Dublin, but was seconded to the London School of Economics during his career.
ESRI economists Brian Nolan and John Fitzgerald are widely seen as the main candidates to replace Prof Whelan. However, sources say that Prof Fitzgerald is not interested in the position. Brian Nolan was a candidate for the position in 1996.
IFSC company appoints new chief
PFPC International, the IFSC company that lost its six most senior executives last month, has appointed Mark Mannion as its new managing director. Mr Mannion worked with PFPC in Dublin between 1998 and 2004 as senior director of fund administration.
He was most recently with UBS, where he was head of fund services.The company has also named Diarmuid O'Donovan as information technology manager. He joins the company from JP Morgan.
Trend Micro profits hit $159m
Trend Micro, the hi-tech multinational that employs 100 people in Cork, reported yesterday that it made a net profit of $159 million (€132.6 million) last year. The company said sales for 2005 grew 18 per cent on the previous year to $622 million.
In the final three months of 2005, the company had sales of $175 million, up 16 per cent on the corresponding period in 2004. Net income was $49.3 million.
Trend Micro specialises in producing security products that guard against viruses, spam and other threats to PC and networks.
Ivers takes top job at Irish Estates
Ross Ivers has been appointed as chief executive of Irish Estates, the Aim and IEX-listed property firm.
Mr Ivers is a former finance director and deputy chief executive of Paddy Power.
He takes over executive responsibility for Irish Estates from Niall McFadden, who is currently executive chairman of the company but will soon move to the role of non-executive chairman.
Mr Ivers resigned from Paddy Power in December. The firm had earlier named Patrick Kennedy, an outsider, as its new chief executive designate.
Former Elan firm loses $18.7m
Former Elan satellite, Amarin, lost $18.7 million (€15.6 million) last year, the company said yesterday. The New York-listed biopharmaceutical developer revealed it had operating losses last year of $18.9 million, compared with a shortfall of $9.9 million in 2004.
