John Fingleton is resign as chair of the Irish Competition Authority to take up a post as the new head of Britain's Office of Fair Trading (OFT), it was confirmed today.
Mr Fingleton will take up his chief executive position at the consumer watchdog in October and serve a five-year term.
Mr Fingleton said looked forward to wrapping up some important cases such as those against the beef industry rationalisation agreement and that taken against an alleged home heating oil cartel. Mr Fingleton has been head of the authority for five years.
"I am confident his strong economic background and his experience as head of the Irish Competition Authority will be of great benefit to the OFT," British Trade and Industry Secretary Alan Johnson said in a statement.
The OFT's main responsibilities are to enforce British competition law and consumer law, monitor markets that appear not to be working well and make market references to the Competition Commission if necessary.
Mr Fingleton will replace John Vickers who completes his term on September 30th. It was announced in March that Philip Collins, formerly a senior partner at international law firm Lovells, would become the new OFT chairman from October 1st.