"I'm far from being a macho manager," insists Irish Life's new managing director designate David Went. As the man who will take over the battle-scarred life giant, there will be many who will be pleased to hear this. But Mr Went is known for being one of the most determined and some would say aggressive managers in Irish financial services. Certainly he is a man who can get things done and has a record of improving performance wherever he goes.

Relations between Irish Life management and staff are thought to be improving. During the dispute earlier this year, 320 sales staff were suspended without pay for refusing to implement Labour Court recommendations. Union bosses accused the company of trying to get rid of their members, while management said sales staff were simply rejecting change.

Agreement was eventually reached at the end of July and sales staff are now being trained on the new technology.

Mr Went has himself been involved in two bank strikes, one in 1970 shortly after he began his career and again several years ago when most of the associated banks were out. He says he would always hope to manage a business with consensus but at a certain stage management has to make decisions.

"It is always a risk if those on strike are the people delivering the service to your customer," he notes. "It is very different to a meat pie factory where those delivering the service are more removed from the customer."

One message which he says should be clear to staff is that the thing to remember is not to be afraid of change. "It is not change which is the relevant thing to be afraid of, it is if there is no change. If management is so complacent it doesn't see the need for change that is when to be afraid."

He says repeatedly that he is driven by the customer service agenda, which in Irish Life's management view was an issue which provoked the strike.

The man whose nickname was "Bumpty" short for bumptious when at secondary school, is said to be very good company but direct and knows how to get what he wants. "You could violently disagree with him and have a shouting match, but that would always be the end of it," a former associate says.

Some sources say Mr Went can be aggressive. But others say you always knew what he would be aggressive about and there would be no surprises.

He is quite a gregarious character. Although he never drinks in a work situation, he is said to be fun to be with, well able to laugh at himself and does not have a big ego.

Others say he does not suffer fools gladly and, if faced with what he sees as mediocrity, can be somewhat fearful. "Most people tend to get out of his way," one source quipped.

Mr Went is also not a man to sit in the office. "He will have the sleeves rolled up and will get to know the business and all the people quickly," another source said.

They also say he is a great believer in teams, and that if he believes someone knows what they are doing he will leave them alone. "You always know where you stand," was a frequent observation.

Mr Went also insists he is a team player and that shapes his management view. "Ultimately nothing gets done by an individual; it is always the team," he says.

When he started at Coutts there was only himself and a secretary and he built up a vibrant team which was capable of changing the 305-year-old institution, while holding onto its heritage.

Some of Coutts' businesses were oldfashioned and needed re-engineering, he says. "Coutts is a fantastic business. It is 305 years old and the challenge was to take what was best out of what has developed over the past 300 years and marry it with more modern management techniques and practices.

"That was the same challenge in Ulster which was almost 170 years old and we had to keep the best of the old while marrying it with the best of the future."

When asked about the move from the world of banking to the possibly less glamorous world of insurance, Mr Went insists the differences are fast disappearing. "Having barriers between businesses is increasingly wrong," he says and as a result we are seeing the development of broad-based financial services conglomerates.

He points to Lloyds Bank purchase of the Leeds Building Society and to the Prudential's move into banking.

In a comment which could prove telling for Irish Life, he points out that the Pru's move means it can now take deposits and get mortgage business from customers. It is also increasingly being tipped as a possible purchaser of various banks and building societies, he says.

"In order to play the game you have to have a powerful position and that is what Irish Life has got," he says.

Mr Went is taking over the second largest funds under management in the country at £7.3 billion compared to Bank of Ireland's £15.6 billion and AIB's £6 billion.

Mr Went believes monetary union will change the competitive dynamic. All financial services businesses will become more competitive with German and Dutch banks possibly looking for Irish business. "You underestimate that at your peril," he says.

He says Irish Life is well placed for monetary union and has a much higher level of appreciation than is evident in Britain. "The level of progress is higher here," he says. "It is at a similar level to France or Germany."

Some commentators have questioned his move to Irish Life, saying he may have felt there was nowhere further to go in the NatWest group, which owns Coutts. After all, they point out, he caused a stir when jokes he made about the Duchess of York's debts failed to go down very well with the frock-coated bankers at Coutts.

But other sources say they are not at all surprised by the move. "I always thought he would return to Dublin if the right opportunity came along," one said.

Indeed, Mr Went says he is delighted to be returning. For the past 10 years he has lived in Belfast and for the past four has commuted from Belfast to London every week. He is now actively looking for a home in Dublin, although he admits to being surprised by the prices.

"It is a bit like having the Old Kent Road on the Monopoly board and wanting to live in Mayfair," he says. He does admit that he would like to return to Shankill where he lived before moving to Belfast.

He admits to being envious of his Dublin friends over the past three or four years as Dublin has taken off. His Belfast-born wife has lived almost half of her life in Dublin and still has many friends here. They met while studying at Trinity College.

His parents moved to Dublin from London in the mid-1930s and never moved back. He grew up in Sandycove and attended High School Rathgar which was then in town. "Ireland has been very good to my family," he says. His daughter is studying to be a vet at UCD. His son is studying law at Oxford.

Despite popular belief, Mr Went says it is not the golf courses which have attracted him back to Dublin. He admits only to being a member of Fitzwilliam - and a poor tennis player at that.