6 March 2001
Appointment of the National Pensions Reserve Fund Commission.

Following consultation with his Government colleagues, the Minister for Finance, Mr Charlie McCreevy TD today announced the names of the seven persons he is appointing to the National Pensions Reserve Fund Commission. They are:

Mr Donal J Geaney (Chairperson) - Chairman and Chief Executive Office of Elan Corporation PLC

Mr Robert J Curran - Second Secretary in the Department of Finance. Mr Curran will be retiring from his post prior to taking up his appointment.

Ms Brid Horan - General Manager Pensions, ESB

Dr Martin Kohlhaussen - Chairman of the Board of Managing Directors, Commerzbank AG. Frankfurt

Mr Donald C Roth - Managing Partner, The Emerging Markets Partnership, Washington DC

Mr Daniel P Tully - Chairman Emeritus of Merrill Lynch & Co., Inc.

Dr Michael Somers - Chief Executive of the National Treasury Management Agency. Dr Somers will be an ex-officio member of the Commission.

CVs of the Commissioners are attached.

The purpose of the National Pensions Reserve Fund is to build up assets which will part-finance the Exchequer cost of social welfare and public service pensions from 2025 onwards, when the State’s pensions bill is expected to rise significantly with the progressive ageing of the population. The legislation providing for the establishment of the Fund was passed by the Oireachtas in December 2000. Under the legislation the Government will make a statutory contribution of 1% of GNP to the Fund each year. In addition to these sums, the Government has already set aside over £5 billion comprising the net proceeds of the sale of the former Telecom Eireann and 1% of GNP in 1999 and 2000 to kick-start the Fund.

A more detailed explanatory note on the Fund is attached for information.

The Commission will be independent of Government and will control and manage the Fund. It will have discretionary authority to determine and implement an investment strategy for the Fund in order to obtain the optimal financial return, subject to prudent risk management. It will commence its work later this month when the Minister makes the order establishing the Fund. The NTMA will act as Manager, or agent, of the Commission in managing the Fund for an initial period of 10 years. The Commission may also appoint outside investment managers to invest and manage specific portions of the Fund.

The Minister noted that persons of the calibre he had appointed to the Commission were likely to have conflicts of interest on occasion. He stressed that he had already discussed this issue with the chairperson and brought his attention to the procedures set out in the National Pensions Reserve Fund Act for dealing with such conflicts of interest.

The Minister thanked the seven members for their willingness to serve on the Commission. He said "they have been set a very important task. Their success in carrying out their responsibilities will have a profound effect on the future welfare and prosperity of the country. I am very pleased that such a high calibre body of people of proven ability and experience have accepted appointments as Commissioners".

ENDS
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CVs of the National Pensions Reserve Fund Commissioners.

Donal J Geaney

Donal J. Geaney is Chairman and Chief Executive Office - Elan Corporation, PLC.

Mr Geaney joined Elan in 1987 as Executive Vice President, Corporate Planning. In 1992, he was elected to Elan's Board of Directors and assumed the positions of President and Chief Operating Officer. On January 1, 1995 he was appointed Chief Executive Officer of Elan. On January 1, 1997 he was elected Chairman of the company.

Elan is Ireland's largest public company with a market capitalisation of over $15 billion and is listed on the New York, Dublin and London Stock Exchanges. It employs one thousand persons in Ireland and over three thousand worldwide of which nearly one third are engaged in research and product development.

Elan is Ireland's largest research-based company with revenues in 1999 in excess of $1 billion. Elan is a leading drug delivery and biopharmaceutical company with extensive drug discovery activity in diseases of the central nervous system and the brain. Elan has research facilities in Ireland, the United States and Israel.

Mr. Geaney is the non executive chairman of the Irish Aviation Authority.

Mr. Geaney was recently appointed to the Bank of Ireland Court of Directors. He is also a member of the Board of Directors of The Ireland-United States Council and The Trinity Foundation.

Mr. Geaney is aged 50 and is a graduate of the University of Dublin, Trinity College and a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Ireland. He was a partner in the international accounting and consulting firm of KPMG where he was responsible for the provision of accounting and advisory services to a number of publicly held and government owned entities.

He is married and he and his wife Anne have three sons. His leisure interests include golf and motor sports in which he has a keen interest.
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Bob Curran

Bob Curran is Second Secretary, Public Expenditure Division, Department of Finance

Education:

Mr Curran's primary degree is in engineering, followed by an MA in political economy, both with first class honours from UCD.

Career:

After working in the synthetic fibres industry in Britain, Mr Curran joined the Department of Finance in 1961.

He has worked on national and regional economic development planning and was in charge of economic forecasting for several years. He participated in economic policy discussions and negotiations in EU fora, including those relating to the establishment of the European Regional Development Fund. Since 1982 he has been in charge of the Public Expenditure Division of the Department of Finance. That Division is responsible for the planning and control of public expenditure; for advising the Minister for Finance on policy issues relating to commercial State bodies, apart from the State owned banks; and for policy on Public Private Partnerships.

Personal:

Mr Curran is 63 and was born in Dublin. He is married with four children. 
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Brid Horan

Employment

General Manager Pensions, ESB, with overall management responsibility for the operation and investment of the ESB Pension Fund, one of the largest Irish pension funds with over 13,000 members and pensioners

Director of ESB International

Qualifications

Associate of the Institute of Actuaries (AIA)

Certified Management Consultant

Other involvements

Member of the Board of IDA Ireland since 1996

Member of the Council of the Irish Association of Pension Funds (IAPF) and Chairperson of the IAPF Investment Committee

Previous employments

Trained in Irish Life and later worked for the Association of Scientific, Technical and Managerial Staffs.

Before joining ESB in 1997, headed KPMG’s Pension & Actuarial Consulting business in Ireland, working with pension schemes from various industries in the public and private sectors.

Personal

Married to John Hall and has two sons, Iain aged 15 and Joe aged 12

Native of County Donegal
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Martin Kohlhaussen

 Personal Data:

Dr Kohlhaussen was born in Marburg/Lahn in 1935. He is married with three children

Career Highlights:

Dr Kohlhaussen is Chairman of the Board of Managing Directors of Commerzbank AG, Frankfurt since 1991. He has been a member of the Board of Managing Directors since 1982. He was President of the Association of German Banks from 1997 to 2000.

He previously worked internationally in banking as Branch Manager in Tokyo and New York. Prior to that, he worked for Commerzbank in Germany.

Education:

Dr Kohlhaussen studied law at the Universities of Frankfurt am Main, Frelburg, Marburg. He has a law degree, Parts I and II (lawyer's licence). In 1998, he received an honourary doctorate from Technische Universitat Chemnitz.
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Donald C. Roth

Don Roth is at present Managing Partner of the Emerging Markets Partnership, Washington D.C., a private equity firm specialising in investing in emerging markets. He is also a member of the Advisory Committee of the National Treasury Management Agency.

Don Roth is a graduate of Princeton University, the University of Chicago and the London School of Economics. He has worked as an international investment banker in London, Tokyo, Hong Kong and New York with major international financial institutions. He served as Treasurer of the World Bank for several years before leaving to establish the firm where he now works. He has had close connections with Ireland for many years and has two Irish grandparents.
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Daniel P Tully

Daniel P Tully is Chairman Emeritus of Merrill Lynch & Co., Inc., the worldwide financial services corporation.

Mr Tully has spent his entire business career at Merrill Lynch, which he joined in 1955 in the accounting department. Within two years he was named operations manager of the Stamford, Connecticut, office. After this grounding in the firm’s operations functions, he entered the Merrill Lynch Training School and in 1959 returned to the Stamford office as an account executive. He was appointed manager of the Stamford office in 1970 and the following year he was elected a Vice President of the firm.

In 1976 Mr Tully was appointed Director of Individual Sales. One year later he was elected to the Board of Directors of Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith,, the firm’s principal securities subsidiary, becoming Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of this subsidiary in 1985. In 1979 he was promoted to Executive Vice President – Marketing and in 1982 become President of the Individual Services Group, forerunner of the present Private Client Group and also was elected Executive Vice President of the parent company, Merrill Lynch & Co., Inc.

Mr Tully served as Chairman of the Board from June 1993 to April 1997, and was Chief Executive Officer from May 1992 to December 1996. Prior to being named Chairman and CEO, Mr Tully served as President and Chief Operating Officer since 1985.

In a succession of management positions, Mr Tully orchestrated the company’s shift from a product-driven sales effort to a client-focused marketing approach. This has led to Merrill Lynch’s highly successful asset-gathering and asset-management strategy.

Born in New York City on 2 January 1932, Mr Tully is a graduate of St John’s University where he received a Bachelor of Business Administration degree, and has completed Harvard Business School’s Advance Management Program. He served in the US Army from 1953-1955.

Mr Tully served as Vice Chairman of the American Stock Exchange from 1984–1986 and as Vice Chairman of the Securities Industry Association from 1985-1986. He also served as President of the Ireland United States Council for Commerce and Industry from 1990-1992 and as Director of the New York Stock Exchange, including a term as Vice Chairman from 1994-1995.

In April 1996, Mr Tully was appointed to the Board of Governors of the NASD and was named Chairman in July 1996. He also serves on the Board of Trustees for the New York Racing Association. Mr Tully is a member of the Board of Incorporators of the Stamford Hospital and a former Chairman of its Board. In 1999 Mr Tully was elected to the Board of the Elan Corporation, plc. He is also on the Board of Merrill Lynch, Capital Markets
Bank, Dublin.

Mr Tully and his wife, Grace have four children and twelve grandchildren. The family resides in Darien, Connecticut.
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