The Board of Irish Residential Properties REIT announced that Eddie Byrne will succeed Margaret Sweeney as Executive Director of the Board with effect from 1 May 2024. As announced on 31 October 2023, Margaret Sweeney notified the Board of her intention to retire from I-RES in April 2024, having served as CEO for the past six and a half years. Margaret will step down on 30 April 2024 following an agreed transition period with the CEO Designate.  Eddie Byrne's appointment follows an extensive and rigorous selection process, led by the Company's Nomination Committee, and assisted by Chair Hugh Scott-Barrett following his appointment to the role in January 2024.

The selection process, which commenced in November 2023, considered both internal and external candidates and was supported by independent third-party advisors. Eddie Byrne has over 20 years' experience at executive level in the real estate sector. Most recently, he was Joint Managing Partner at Quintain Developments Ireland, one of Ireland's largest residential real estate developers, where he co-established the Irish operation that achieved over 5,000 planning permissions, built and sold c. 1,500 rental and private homes, and raised a significant amount of growth capital.

He was previously Managing Director at Hudson Advisors Ireland, where he oversaw several billion euro of acquisitions and disposals of real estate assets in Ireland. He was also Chief Portfolio Officer at Netherlands based Propertize where he had responsibility for a large property portfolio across the Benelux countries and before that, worked in real estate, banking, and capital markets in North America.