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Ulster Bank has informed its staff of a number of changes to its senior executive team in Ireland, which will take effect from next month.

David Thomas, managing director of corporate banking, is to leave the group next month to return to the UK for personal reasons. Mr Thomas joined Ulster Bank in October 2011. Before that, he was chief risk officer of UK corporate banking at RBS.

Eddie Cullen will join Ulster Bank’s executive committee with responsibility for corporate and institutional banking and the markets team. He is currently head of corporate and institutional banking.

Ellvena Graham, who was appointed as head of Ulster Bank in Northern Ireland in March, is to assume all-island responsibility for business direct, business banking, specialised relationship management, and deposits, products and propositions for the corporate bank. In a note to staff detailing the changes, chief executive Jim Brown said Ms Graham would "continue to be an ambassador for our business engaging with our key stakeholders, having been appointed as head of Northern Ireland earlier this year".

Replacement
In addition, Chris Davis is joining Ulster Bank from parent group Royal Bank of Scotland and will replace Ms Graham as the Irish bank's chief operating officer (COO). Mr Davis is currently COO in RBS's corporate banking division.All of the appointments are subject to regulatory approval.

Ulster Bank is Ireland’s third biggest retail bank. In 2012, it announced its intention to reduce its employee numbers by 950 through voluntary redundancy. Last week, it emerged that up to a further 850 positions could go over the next three years through natural attrition.

The bank is targeting a return to profitability in 2016. It made an operating loss of over £1 billion last year as impairments relating to its mortgage book and other lending continued to weigh on the business.