AIB's new chief executive is the ideal candidate for restructuring

AIB finally has its man. After a prolonged search for a new chief executive, the bank revealed that David Duffy was set to take the post - and all without breaching the government's €500k pay cap.

For AIB employees, the appointment is a bit of a double-edged sword; on the one hand there's a new hand to steady the ship, on the other the long-anticipated plan for 2,000 redundancies and major restructuring will finally be set in stone.

Finance minister, Michael Noonan, has said that Duffy would be allowed to "get his feet under the desk" before making a decision on the redundancies. However, based on his previous experience, he's unlikely to need too much time.

Duffy is an Irish expat who is moving into the AIB post from his current role running his own firm Celtic Advisory International in Singapore. However, his previous roles have largely involved...restructuring.

Duffy started his career at Goldman Sachs in 1987, originally joining as business manager within its IT division, but had moved to head up its European HR team by 1993.

By 1994, he had "designed and implemented the cost restructuring" for the firm, before then eventually putting together its HR growth strategy.

He then joined ING Group in February 1998, initially as head of human resources, but he'd moved on to the role of global chief operating officer by November 1998 and then moved on to become CEO of the bank's US and Latin American operations by 2000.

And, in 2004, he oversaw the "successful sale and restructuring of the bank's operations".

AIB's executive chairman, David Hodgkinson, said that Duffy was "ideally suited to the task of leading AIB's extensive restructuring". Indeed, expect relatively swift action in this regard.