AIB HAS appointed EBS chief executive Fergus Murphy as the new head of its transformation programme. Mr Murphy will continue to run EBS while its integration with AIB progresses over the coming months.

In an e-mail communication to AIB staff yesterday, executive chairman David Hodgkinson named Mr Murphy as the bank’s new transformation director. He succeeds Keith Davies, who is leaving to take up a position with an IT company in Britain.

Mr Murphy was appointed group chief executive of EBS in January 2008, and when AIB acquired EBS in July, he joined the bank’s executive committee.

“I have asked Fergus Murphy to head up this reconfigured role supported by the transformation unit to provide the leadership to the programme at executive committee level,” Mr Hodgkinson said.

He also told staff that the transformation of AIB from its old operating model to a new simplified, streamlined and more automated model was “continuing apace”.

Mr Murphy will be supported in his new role by head of operations and technology Marcel McCann, and the human resources function led by John Conway, he said.

Mr Hodgkinson also announced the appointment of Peter Davison as deputy head of group HR, with responsibility for HR transformation. “Peter’s appointment as part of John Conway’s team will strengthen the capacity of the HR function to deliver its very full agenda,” Mr Hodkinson said.

AIB confirmed in April that there would be 2,000 redundancies but has yet to identify where the job cuts will fall.

This week AIB named David Duffy as its new chief executive. He will take over next month when Mr Hodgkinson reverts to non-executive chairman.