Pat McLoughlin, who resigned as deputy chief executive of the Health Service Executive, profiled.
Pat McLoughlin has worked in the health service all his life.
A native of Arigna, Co Roscommon, he joined the former North Western Health Board as a clerical officer shortly after leaving school in 1977.
He moved up the ladder quickly and as he did so he also moved between health boards.
He served as a staff officer with the Western Health Board, as a community care administrator with the Midland Health Board and then around 1989 he took up a personnel officer post with the South Eastern Health Board. Later he also served as this board's programme manager of acute hospitals. In 1996 he was given responsibility for setting up drug treatment units within the Eastern Health Board region.
He later had responsibility for mental health services and health promotion in the east and ultimately became the Eastern Health Board's chief executive in the late 1990s.
When the Eastern Regional Health Authority was established he became its director of planning and commissioning and in 2002 moved back to the South Eastern Health Board as chief executive.
When the Health Service Executive was established he was appointed to its management team. He was named director of its national hospitals office and also the HSE's deputy chief executive.
Married with three grown-up sons, he used his spare time to study, obtaining a BA degree, a law degree and an MBA.
The decision of somebody with his experience to resign is regarded as a huge loss to the health service.
Eithne Donnellan