Ireland’s former prime minister Bertie Ahern has been appointed to an advisory board of major Irish company Parker Green International.

Ahern will form one of eight on the international advisory board formed of business and political leaders. Parker Green said the board would help drive the company’s continued expansion.

Other figures on the board include two members of the UK House of Lords – Lord Alf Dubs, a Labour party politican who is an expert on Eastern European accession to the EU, and Lord Dennis Rogan, a crossbench peer and businessman with experience in African and Asian markets and leader of the Ulster Unionist Party in the Lords.

The board also includes: Harvard University’s Professor Richard Peiser, an expert in real estate development and urban planning; Michael Gibbons, a senior executive with French bank BNP Paribas; and Gregory Tosko, a vice-chairman of property services firm CB Richard Ellis in New York.

Parker Green is headquartered in Newry, Northern Ireland and develops and invests in the UK, Ireland, Western Europe and the USA. Its portfolio includes The Quays Shopping and Leisure Complex in Newry and the 120,000 sq ft House of Fraser department store in Darlington, England.

Gerard O’Hare, who founded Parker Green International in 1996 and is chairman, said: ‘With investments and developments throughout western, central and eastern Europe, the United States, the UK, and Ireland, we needed a board that would reflect our global approach more fully. This international advisory board lets us do that.

'This board can bring its global expertise to the management table and in doing so match the business approach already expressed in our portfolio.’

The board convenes today for its inaugural meeting in Malta.