Independent News & Media PLC announced that its Chairman, Leslie Buckley, has informed the company that he will be stepping down from his position at an Extraordinary General Meeting of the company to be held in Dublin on 1 March, 2018. Allan Marshall, non-executive Director, will also retire from the Board on that date. The company also announced the proposed appointment of four new non-executive Directors, namely John Bateson, Fionnuala Duggan, Murdoch MacLennan and Seamus Taaffe, to its Board. John Bateson is Managing Director of International Investment and Underwriting (IIU) and represents IIU on the boards of various companies, both private and publicly quoted. Since joining IIU in 1995, he has been closely involved in the creation of its current portfolio of investments. Fionnuala Duggan is Managing Director of KNect365 Learning. A senior digital executive and leader, Fionnuala has enjoyed success in repositioning traditional industries for the digital age, and in establishing and scaling up digital businesses of many kinds inside global organisations. Murdoch MacLennan is Deputy Chairman of the Telegraph Media Group and was previously its CEO for 13 years. Before joining the Telegraph, he was Group Managing Director of Associated Newspapers and prior to that Managing Director of the Daily Record and Sunday Mail. He is currently Chairman of the Press Association Group and Chairman of the Scottish Professional Football League. Between 1997 and 2003 he was President of IFRA, the global association for newspapers, and is now a member of the Board of the International News Media Association (INMA). Since 2016, he has been a member of the Council of Google's Digital News Initiative (DNI). Seamus Taaffe is an experienced non-executive director and financial and management consultant. He was a Senior Audit Partner with KPMG until his retirement in 2009, as well as being a member of the Board of KPMG Ireland and Chairman of its Consumer and Industrial Markets Group.