David Drumm (above)

The highs

The highlight of David Drumm's career at Anglo Irish bank was arguably when he got the chief executive's job in the first place. Everyone in the bank and outside had expected Tiernan O'Mahony, later of ISTC, to get the top job. But Drumm was chosen instead, following his work in establishing the bank's US business. In recent years Drumm managed to maintain super profits at the bank, including growing earnings per share by 15% on average. Many believed a younger man like Drumm could not follow FitzPatrick, but for a time he did, with considerable energy.

The lows

The bank under Drumm has started to endure endless criticism over its exposure to property and commercial lending and the response was not convincing from Drumm. Bad debt charges have started to rise spectacularly and many of the bank's biggest critics said Anglo was not being fully frank about asset quality. Around St Patrick's Day Drumm ended up in an unseemly row over short-selling of its stock. It was reported it even came into conflict with its own stockbroker Davy over the issue. The simple point was short-sellers were attacking the bank's share price because there was concern over its rising bad debts and future earnings potential.

sean fitzpatrick

The highs

The sheer stellar growth of Anglo Irish Bank from its humble origins as a public company in 1971 has been one of the greatest success stories of Irish business and virtually all of that is down to Sean FitzPatrick. AIB and Bank of Ireland were often accused of hindering entrepreneurs in Ireland, whereas Anglo helped them. To stay at the top of Anglo and grow at such a fast rate, despite the onslaught of AIB and Bank of Ireland, will always be an outstanding achievement for FitzPatrick. Nowadays every banker talks about relationship banking and opting for low cost in terms of high-street presence, but that is down to Anglo Irish.

The lows

The low is not seeing the writing on the wall in terms of property lending. Mountains of economic reports told FitzPatrick the game was up for the Irish commercial property market and the residential segment too; still Anglo kept ramping up its property exposure. Another FitzPatrick low was allowing Ireland's richest man Sean Quinn (and family) build up a huge and influential CFD stake in the bank without declaring it. Only recently was it declared at all and the details of who owns which piece of equity has still not been released into the market. FitzPatrick did himself no favours on this.

Emmet Oliver