Buckley's role is to develop Freeman's client base in Europe, where it has recently opened a new office in London.

Freeman focuses on the financial services sector, where it provides advice on mergers and acquisitions, capital raising, restructuring advice and valuations of private companies.

Buckley brings a wealth of international banking and experience of European capital markets to the role. Prior to assuming the top job at AIB, he was head of investment banking and, later, managing director of AIB capital markets. He joined AIB from NCB stockbrokers, of which he was managing director.

Freeman & Co. was founded in 1991 by James Freeman, who was previously the head of global equities and global asset management for investment bank Credit Suisse First Boston.

NEW 3G PHONE SOFTWARE IS OFFERING 'FREE' CALLS FRING, an Israeli company, is offering "free" calls to 3 and Vodafone Ireland mobile phone customers with 3G phones using voice over internet (VoIP) technology.

The new service claims to offer 3G customers free calls to other 3G handsets and PCs. Fring is hoping the service will achieve the same level of success in the mobile world as technologies such as Skype and Google Talk have on the internet.

Users have to download Fring's software to their handsets and will then be able to make calls over the internet, using the data capacity offered by the 3G network, rather than relying on their operator's voice network.

The newly-launched service does have several limitations, however. Although the Fring service itself is free, customers will still pay for the amount of data they use as they would for other 3G services such as mobile video or music Most 3G customers are on monthly plans where they pay a fixed charge for a set amount of data. Vodafone, for example, charges a minimum 20 cent every time its customers access its 3G network to download files or content. A Fring user on Vodafone's network would therefore be paying at least 20 cent for each "free" call.

Fring will also only be available on seven models of Nokia handsets, meaning its application will be very limited to 3G customers. A spokeswoman for Vodafone said the operator "wouldn't see it as a big threat".