Name: Dr John Fingleton

Age: 34

Position: Newly appointed chairman and director of enforcement at the Competition Authority.

Background: From a farming family in Co Laois, Dr Fingleton is a former academic with the Department of Economics at Trinity College, Dublin. He has also worked for Microsoft, Visa and MasterCard on high-profile competition cases in the US and carried out consulting work for the Director of Telecommunications Regulation, Ms Etain Doyle.

Why is he in the news? A welter of high-profile resignations from the authority have prevented it from carrying out new investigations into alleged cartels. Dr Fingleton aims to change all that. He sees his mandate as renewing and strengthening the body, and wants to increase its functions, leading to statutory independence from the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment.