Fledgling Dublin-based investment firm GlobalReach Securities is set to beef up its board.
The group, which is led by managing director Paul Phelan, who previously worked for Dermot Desmond's IIU, has sought regulatory approval to appoint former Irish rugby international and experienced banker Paul McNaughton as chairman.
It also wants to add solicitor-turned-property consultant Dermot O'Rourke as a non-executive director.
McNaughton won 15 caps with Ireland as a centre in the days when the sport was still amateur and Ireland were far from a world power. No change there, then. Now 55, his career CV includes a decade spent with IDA Ireland and a long stint in the fund management industry.
He helped set up Bank of Ireland's IFSC funds business before establishing Deutsche Bank's fund division here - now part of State Street Bank.
McNaughton left Deutsche Bank in 2004 and is now an adviser and director for several investment companies.
O'Rourke, meanwhile, founded O'Rourke Reid solicitors in the early 1980s, specialising in commercial property. He quit legal practice in 2005 and is now a property consultant. O'Rourke spent some time in the fast lane, working as an adviser to Jordan Grand Prix in the 1990s.
GlobalReach was set up last April with €7 million in backing from private investors. It offers asset management and investment services, and membership of the Irish and London stock exchanges is pending.
The firm this week launched an Absolute Return Bond and expects to net more than €20 million in client funds by the time it closes at the end of February.
