The last time he pressed the broker flesh back in 1998, Purdy was general manager of CGU, an outsider hustling to break into the Irish savings market. Today as deputy chief executive of Hibernian, he is part of something a whole lot bigger and is seen as a shoo-in for the top job when Bryan Jenkins steps down some time next year.

A lot has happened in between. CGU was taken over by Hibernian's parent company, Aviva, which promptly dispatched Purdy to India in 2000 to set up shop from scratch. Now the 44-year-old Scotsman, who grew up with a view of the Irish coastline from his home in the ferry port of Stranraer, returns to a country where everything has changed.

When he first came to Dublin almost a decade ago, everyone was talking about an Irish property bubble that could not last. Today he rents a home in Ranelagh that is probably worth more than similar properties in London, where Aviva has its headquarters.

In 1998, Ireland's wealth, such as it was, was safely stashed under the mattress.

Now it is a force to be reckoned with on international markets.

Back in the 1990s, Eddie Hobbs was known only as a thorn in the side of the financial services industry. Today, his crusade as consumer champion has been largely eclipsed by a budding career in light entertainment.

With all this change, the move from Delhi to Dublin is bound to be something of a culture shock.

"To succeed at the upper level of management, you've got to be the sort of person who can focus completely on the job but then be able to draw a line under it and move on, " he says. "I went back to India last week for a board meeting and, even in the five weeks I've been away, the business has already moved on. A business always need fresh eyes and a fresh impetus."

Like any multinational, Aviva expects the troops to hit the ground running in any part of the globe.

"I thought that coming to Ireland to set up business for CGU was the experience of a lifetime, " he says. "But jobs like India don't come around too often and it probably took me the first two years for my compass to start working. The attraction for me of coming back to Dublin is that it's a good place to live and bring up a family. From a professional point of view, it's a mature competitive market that brings a whole new set of difficult challenges."

Purdy's arrival in India in 2000 coincided with the liberalisation of the market, which had been closed to foreign life insurance companies since 1971.

"We knew the market was going to reopen but, when I got there, we started with a blank piece of paper, " he says.

"There was me, a tea boy, a graduate trainee and a secretary."

Now Aviva has an army of 16,000 sales agents in India, with another 5,000 being trained, and alliances with 29 banks to sell its savings and pension plans through their branches. The potential is enormous as India prepares to leapfrog much of Europe to become the world's thirdbiggest economy by 2030. But Purdy knows from first-hand experience that it won't be plain sailing.

"The country has huge infrastructural challenges. As always, it's a question of balance and nothing is ever black and white."

Government meddling is another obstacle and the only way into India for foreign insurance companies is through a joint venture with a local outfit. The restriction might not be to everybody's taste but it has at least given Purdy a taste for living with shared control.

The experience should come in useful in the getting to grips with the top item in Purdy's in-tray: managing the landmark joint venture that fused Hibernian's life insurance business with AIB's Ark Life last year. The transaction created a 1.3bn powerhouse, big enough to challenge the dominance of Irish Life & Permanent and Bank of Ireland.

With a partner the size of AIB, Hibernian has finally made it to the big time, writing 61% more new business in the first half of this year than in the same period in 2005, before the joint venture started trading.

But it has not been easy, especially after managing director Tony O'Riordan jumped ship just six months after the joint venture got off the ground. O'Riordan was a key player in putting the AIB deal together and, while mystery still surrounds his surprise exit, it has been speculated that he had pinned his hopes on landing the job now occupied by Purdy.

Purdy won't be drawn on the issue, apart from heaping praise on his predecessor's achievements. But he insists that the change at the top has not strained relations with AIB, the junior partner in the joint venture with a 25% stake.

"Organisations change and people make their own decisions to stay or to move on, " he says. "Our interaction with AIB is across all levels of the organisation. When you're looking for somebody in Hibernian today, it's not unusual to find they've popped out to meet their opposite number in AIB.

CV Job: Deputy chief executive, Hibernian Age: 44 Born: Stranraer, Scotland Lives: Ranelagh, Dublin Education: Economics at HeriotWatt University, Edinburgh, where he served as president of the Students' Association Family: Married with two daughters, aged seven and "ve Career: Joined the insurance industry from university. General manager of CGU's life business in Ireland (1998-2000). Managing director of Aviva India (20002006) HIBERNIAN Hibernian Life & Pensions:

Third-biggest life insurer with 17% market share and 800 staff.

Hibernian General Insurance:

Market leader with gross premiums of 775.3m in 2005 and 1,200 staff.

Hibernian Investment Managers: Third-biggest asset manager following the transfer of 4bn of Ark Life business.

That's an indication that we are really working as a team, beyond individuals."

The glue binding the two organisations should get stickier later this year when Hibernian moves into its new 9m headquarters at Dublin's Hatch Street. As well as uniting Hibernian's various arms . . . the life company, the general insurance company and the fund management business . . . under one roof, the new building will also house Ark Life's 230 staff.

Purdy believes his position as an outsider will work to his advantage. "The key thing will be getting the culture right and making everyone feel part of the team, " he says.

"I suppose I've an advantage because I come from neither side."

In common with the rest of the insurance industry, Hibernian's results for the year will be largely decided by what happens over the next two weeks. This is the peak season for pension sales, as the selfemployed stuff their spare cash into retirement funds in a bid to save tax ahead of the 31 October pay-and-file deadline.

The annual October scramble could become a thing of the past if, as some believe, we should be forced to save for retirement rather than treating pensions simply as a way of dodging tax. But Purdy says it is premature to talk about mandatory pensions when the government could do a lot more to make existing incentives work better.

Rather than claiming tax allowances, a cumbersome system which most people claim not to understand, he believes a simple SSIA-style tax credit would tune more people into the benefits of pension saving.

"There's a wonderful lesson to be learnt from SSIAs and it would be a shame to waste it, " he says.