Host local authority
An agendaNi event
Wednesday 6th December · Hilton Templepatrick
Host local authority
An agendaNi event
Northern Ireland Economic Conference
The 28th annual Northern Ireland Economic Conference took place in the Hilton, Templepatrick in December 2023. Hosted by Antrim & Newtownabbey Borough Council, Northern Ireland’s premier economic analysis event brought together key players in the economy, across all sectors including policy makers, business leaders and economic stakeholders to discuss economic priorities for Northern Ireland, closing the skills gaps in the local economy and addressing the challenges of the cost of living crisis.
Delegates in attendance heard from a number of local and visiting expert speakers including Chris Giles, Economics Editor, Financial Times; Sandra McNally, Professor of Economics, University of Surrey and Director, Centre for Economic Performance, London School of Economics and Frank O’Donnell, Public Sector Lead, Microsoft Ireland.
We would like to take this opportunity to thank our conference host, Antrim & Newtownabbey Borough Council, all speakers and delegates who joined us in the Hilton, Templepatrick and made the conference a huge success.
Noyona Chundur was appointed Chief Executive of The Consumer Council in January 2021. She has extensive experience of consumer protection, economic development and arts and culture having successfully developed strategies at regional, national and international levels that deliver customer-centric business transformation. Noyona joined The Consumer Council from Invest Northern Ireland where she was Head of Campaigns and Digital Solutions since 2006, joining the organisation in 2004. She led their communications strategy for Northern Ireland, winning multiple internationally recognised awards for marketing and digital innovation, and is also Chair of the Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival.
John Campbell is Economics and Business Editor for BBC Northern Ireland, a position he has held since September 2013. Prior to that he was a senior BBC producer working across TV, radio and online with special responsibility for business coverage. He began his career on the Liverpool Daily Post and Echo.
Paul Grocott is the Deputy Secretary for Economic Strategy Group in the Department for the Economy. Paul’s team led the development of the Department’s 10X Economic Vision and is now working on developing the transformational policies that can achieve these outcomes and the organisational changes that are necessary to make it all happen. He is currently responsible for coordinating the programme of engagements for the Special Envoy to Northern Ireland on Economic Affairs. Paul led the teams providing support to businesses during Covid and was responsible for Northern Ireland’s ‘High Street Scheme’ that provided adults with £100 to spend in their local high streets. Paul is also the Department’s Policy Champion which includes promoting and leading new policy development approaches.
Kirsty McManus was appointed Nations Director for Northern Ireland at the Institute of Directors in July 2017 and was recently promoted to the role of Director of Professional Development Services in April 2023. Kirsty’s appointment followed a successful career during which she has held senior positions at CBI, Ulster University and Vistage in California. She has over 20 years’ experience working in markets such as the United States and Europe. Kirsty was appointed Chair of the Ministerial Advisory Panel on Infrastructure in Northern Ireland by Minister Mallon in August 2020 and is a founding member of the Northern Ireland Business Brexit working group. Kirsty has a degree in Information Management from Queens University, an MBA from Ulster University Business School and achieved the IoD Certificate and Diploma in Company Direction. Kirsty is also a trustee of Charis Cancer Charity and a branch member of Ulster Rugby. Kirsty is also a member of the Community Relations Council Peace Monitoring Advisory Committee and a Fellow of the Centre for Democracy and Peace Building.
Kirsty McManus was appointed Nations Director for Northern Ireland at the Institute of Directors in July 2017 and was recently promoted to the role of Director of Professional Development Services in April 2023. Kirsty’s appointment followed a successful career during which she has held senior positions at CBI, Ulster University and Vistage in California. She has over 20 years’ experience working in markets such as the United States and Europe. Kirsty was appointed Chair of the Ministerial Advisory Panel on Infrastructure in Northern Ireland by Minister Mallon in August 2020 and is a founding member of the Northern Ireland Business Brexit working group. Kirsty has a degree in Information Management from Queens University, an MBA from Ulster University Business School and achieved the IoD Certificate and Diploma in Company Direction. Kirsty is also a trustee of Charis Cancer Charity and a branch member of Ulster Rugby. Kirsty is also a member of the Community Relations Council Peace Monitoring Advisory Committee and a Fellow of the Centre for Democracy and Peace Building.
Neil Johnston is the Director of the Northern Ireland Retail Consortium. Neil has over twenty years experience in strategic communications and public affairs in Northern Ireland. He has worked for a range of leading organisations including the BBC, RSPB and RICS. In his consultancy work he has worked for a broad range of blue bodies including Pfizer, Mutual Energy and the Association for the British Pharmaceutical Industry. He also acts as public affairs adviser for the health charity Northern Ireland Chest Heart and Stroke.
Chris Giles is a columnist at the Financial Times and has been its Economics Editor since 2004. Based in London he has a particular focus on trends in the world economy and in the UK. Previously at the Financial Times, he was the economics editorial writer. Before joining the FT in 2000, Chris was an economics correspondent at the BBC. He started his career in research, spending seven years as an economist for the Institute for Fiscal Studies.
Dr David Jordan is a Lecturer in Economics at Queen’s Business School, and a Research Associate at The Productivity Institute. He is currently examining the reasons behind low levels of productivity in Northern Ireland, as part of the work of the Northern Ireland Productivity Forum. His wider research focuses on regional and public economics, alongside economic and financial history. He is particularly interested in the economics of devolution, including how institutions and policy have shaped the long-run performance of Northern Ireland’s economy.
Paul Johnson is a professional economist who has been director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies since 2011. He is a columnist for The Times, and is a regular contributor to other broadcast and print media. He is currently a member of the UK Climate Change Committee, and of the Financial Services Culture Board. He is a visiting professor in the UCL Policy Lab and at the UCL department of economics. Previous roles have included time as chief economist at the Department for Education and as director of public spending at HM Treasury, where he also served as deputy head of the government economic service. Paul was appointed CBE in the 2018 birthday honours.
Dr Janez Kren is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) in Dublin and a Fellow at Trinity College Dublin. His research primarily focuses on international trade and applied econometrics. Prior to his current positions he was a doctoral researcher at KU Leuven in Belgium, worked as a consultant for the World Bank and was a visiting researcher at Loughborough University. He has published peer-reviewed research on topics related to Ireland, the UK, and European economy.
Richard Baker commenced employment as Chief Executive with Antrim and Newtownabbey Borough Council in November 2023. Following previous government and private sector employment, he joined the legacy Coleraine Borough Council as the Deputy Chief Executive and Director of Leisure and Development in 2011. When Councils merged in 2015, Richard was appointed as Corporate Director for Development and Leisure at Causeway Coast and Glens Borough Council. During this later appointment he was the lead Council Officer for the 2019 Open Golf Championship at Royal Portrush. He also led the realisation of Northern Ireland’s first Enterprise Zone and delivered numerous multi-million pound capital projects, including the initiation of the Council’s £80m Growth Deal. Here at Antrim and Newtownabbey Borough Council, Mr Baker’s strategic focus is on service to the residents of the Borough, to the Councillors and Council staff. In conjunction with on-going service improvement, this will be achieved by implementing the key objectives of the Council’s Covid Recovery and Corporate Plans which aim to improve the environment, encourage and support economic growth, engage and empower local communities, and improve the lifestyles of residents.
Frank O’Donnell is a member of the Leadership Team at Microsoft Ireland where he leads the Government, Health and Education businesses. His experience includes working within Economic Development as a Senior Director at Scottish Enterprise, advising public sector clients as a Partner/Country Head at PA Consulting and Head of Health and Public Sector Consulting at KPMG and leading Digital Transformation across key areas of the economy.
Andrew has worked in Higher Education for 20 years, working in student recruitment internationally, strategic projects and education. Currently supporting the Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences in the operational implementation of their strategic plan, he has most recently completed a scoping exercise into a structure that would support the development of a Net-Zero Skills Academy for Northern Ireland. He is particularly interested in the opportunity for education providers to work in collaboration to meet the future skills needs of the Green Economy.
Brian O'Callaghan is a Lead Researcher and Programme Manager at the Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment, the University of Oxford. He is also a Consultant for the Robertson Foundation and on a leave of absence from the Boston Consulting Group. Brian is an Australian Rhodes Scholar. Brian's research focuses on mechanisms for financing renewable energy and other net-zero industry. He holds additional research interests in the hydrogen economy, rural electrification, and fiscal policy in times of economic downturn.
Steve Orr is the Chief Executive of Catalyst Inc. He is responsible for developing the support ecosystem for entrepreneurs in Northern Ireland, to create and scale innovation companies. Steve spent ten years prior to this in California where he co-founded Kineticom Inc, a San Diego, California-based technical talent firm in 2000. The firm ranked #33 on the Inc 500 list of the fastest-growing, privately-held US companies in 2006. Steve graduated from the University of Northumbria with a degree in Business Information Technology.
Steve Orr is the Chief Executive of Catalyst Inc. He is responsible for developing the support ecosystem for entrepreneurs in Northern Ireland, to create and scale innovation companies. Steve spent ten years prior to this in California where he co-founded Kineticom Inc, a San Diego, California-based technical talent firm in 2000. The firm ranked #33 on the Inc 500 list of the fastest-growing, privately-held US companies in 2006. Steve graduated from the University of Northumbria with a degree in Business Information Technology.
Stephen Kelly is CEO of Manufacturing Northern Ireland, the campaigning organisation which works with member companies, workforce representatives, policy makers and regulators to challenge and encourage change in areas which impact on the cost of doing business, innovation and people. With colleagues, Stephen has been at the forefront of Northern Ireland’s business community’s efforts on Brexit. Previously Stephen was CEO and Strategy Director for an international marketing and communications business, CEO of Derry–Londonderry City Centre Initiative and worked for various children’s and cancer charities in fundraising. He provided mediation services for the NI Parades Commission, was a member of the BBC’s Broadcasting Council and UK National President of Junior Chamber. He is currently a Visiting Professor at Ulster University’s Department of Global Business and Enterprise at Magee and was a member of the UK Government’s Board of Trade until the summer of 2020.
Marie Ward is the Chief Executive of Newry, Mourne and Down District Council, a position she took up in October 2019. Marie has been a director in the Council since April 2015 and has worked at a senior level in local government for over eight years. During that time, Marie was responsible for Enterprise, Regeneration and Tourism in Newry, Mourne and Down; Marie led on the development of the Council’s shared services site in Downpatrick and is currently leading on the delivery of a major regeneration scheme for Newry City.
Councillor Kinnear was first elected to Antrim and Newtownabbey Borough Council in the 2019 local elections representing the Glengormley Urban DEA and was re-elected in 2023. She is the Deputy Mayor for the 2023-24 year. Councillor Kinnear is a Member of Sinn Féin and currently serves on the Planning Committee. She has also previously served on the Operations and Community Planning Committees.
Micheál Martin TD is the 15th Taoiseach having been appointed on 27th June 2020. He is a Dáil veteran, having represented the constituency of Cork South Central in the Dáil since 1989. He has been the Leader of Fianna Fáil since January 2011 and now leads a coalition government with Fine Gael and the Green Party. Micheál was previously Minister for Foreign Affairs (2008-2011), Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment (2004-2008), Minister for Health (2000-2004) and Minister for Education (1997-2000).
Sinéad McLaughlin is an MLA for the Foyle constituency, covering Derry city. Sinéad is the SDLP's Spokesperson on COVID-19 Recovery and currently serves as Chair of the Executive Office Committee, providing an essential and vocal scrutiny of the Executive Office and the work of the First, Deputy First and Junior Ministers
Sinéad is a former Chief Executive of the Chamber of Commerce in Derry and was a leader of the campaign in Northern Ireland against Brexit. Sinéad is a strong advocate for university expansion in Derry, building on the legacy of the late John Hume.
Richard Johnston has two decades of experience as an Economist in the public, private and academic sectors. He is a member of the DfE Ministerial Economic Advisory Group, and was a member of the Ministerial Advisory Panel on Infrastructure. Richard is a Chartered Director and serves on the Board of Warrenpoint Harbour and Inspire Business Centre.
Gareth Hetherington is the Director of the Ulster University Economic Policy Centre. The Centre is self-financing and carries out a broad range of economic policy focused research to inform Central and Local Government on key policy and strategy decisions. Typical areas of research cover skills, competitiveness, tax, community planning, economic forecasting and more recently COVID recovery. Gareth works closely with senior stakeholders in the public and private sector, providing briefings to NI Executive Ministers, evidence to Assembly Committees and engages with senior business leaders. He also provides regular economic commentary in the media. Separately Gareth is the non-executive chair of the South Eastern Regional College (SERC) and is a member of both the High Streets Task Force and the newly established Northern Ireland Skills Council.
Chris Johnson is Pro Vice Chancellor for Engineering and Physical Sciences at Queen’s University, Belfast. His research deals with the safety and security of high-risk systems and national critical infrastructure. He has worked with NASA on long-duration human spaceflight and on cyber security with the UK civil nuclear operators. He supported the safety engineering of the Singapore autonomous vehicle programme. In 2022, he appeared as an expert witness before the Grenfell Tower Inquiry - advising on the communications and data failures that exacerbated the loss of life.
Maeve Monaghan is Chief Executive, NOW Group. She was appointed to NOW Group in 2001 and has been responsible for the development of the organisation over the past 21 years and believes passionately in the rights of people with disabilities to have equal access to high quality training and employment. Maeve was awarded an MBE in March 2022 for services to people with learning difficulties. NOW Group, a limited company with charitable status, is an award-winning social enterprise that supports 2000 people with barriers to employment and learning into the workforce. The organisation also operates three successful social enterprise businesses called Loaf Catering, Gauge Impact and JAM Card, the profits from which go back into NOW Group’s work.
Andrew Jenkins was appointed by HM Treasury as the FinTech Envoy for Northern Ireland in September 2019, making him the lead ambassador for the local FinTech Sector. He is a Director at Arity, a company founded by Allstate in 2016, and has over 20 years’ experience in the technology business. In September 2022, Andrew became the Chair of the FinTech NI Association, a not-for-profit organisation working to promote Northern Ireland as a leading global FinTech hub.
Angela McGowan joined the CBI in October 2016 as Director for Northern Ireland having previously worked for eight years as the Chief Economist for Danske Bank. She has enjoyed a varied career as an economist in both the public and the private sector. Angela has experience sitting on several boards including Vice Chair of Enterprise NI and Non-Executive Director of Young Enterprise. She currently sits on the Northern Ireland Audit Office External Review Panel, she is a member of the Employer’s Forum at Queen’s University in Belfast, a member of the NI Skills Strategy Advisory Group and a Commissioner on Belfast City Council’s Innovation and Inclusive Growth Commission.
Kerry Curran is the Acting Director, Strategy and Policy at InterTradeIreland. In this role, she leads InterTradeIreland’s strategy, policy, research, and partnerships functions. She represents the agency at multiple policy and research fora in Ireland and Northern Ireland and previously managed the Body’s EU Exit research and policy programme. She has more than twenty years’ experience of working in strategic policy research roles and prior to joining InterTradeIreland worked for Queen’s University Belfast, The Environment Agency (GB) and Renewable UK. She has a degree in Environmental Science, a Masters in Economics in Policy Analysis and a Masters in Business Administration and more than 5 years of Charity Board experience.
Dr Lynsey Quinn has an extensive background in business development, policy influencing and governance, spanning the private and public sectors as well as higher education across Ireland. Lynsey has led award-nominated, international research projects across Europe. The evidence-based research she led has been used in the development of agri-food Government policy in Northern Ireland. Her research has been recognised as “internationally excellent”, published in a wide range of high-quality international business-related journals, such as the Journal of Rural Studies and has been included as case study evidence in the Research Excellence Framework exercise (2021&2014). Most recently Lynsey was appointed as a Further Education Governing Body member by DfE. Lynsey is also a School Governor at Grammar and Nursery schools in the Lisburn area where she lives.
Dr Karen Orr is a Research Fellow in the Centre for Research in Educational Underachievement (CREU) at Stranmillis University College, Belfast. Dr Orr's research interests span several disciplines across psychology, education, and children’s rights. Dr Orr has specific interest in educational disadvantage and underachievement and in improving children’s outcomes and wellbeing, both in school and the wider community. Amongst a suite of research projects and publications, Dr Orr was a Co-Investigator on a recent CREU research project (funded by DfE) aimed at exploring the perceptions of Level 4 and 5 qualifications in NI (Report: Purdy, N. Gibson, K., Orr, K., Tsang, K. (2022) Perceptions of Level 4 & 5 Qualifications in Northern Ireland. Belfast: Centre for Research in Educational Underachievement (CREU).
David Gavaghan has established Aurora Prime Real Estate Limited and is seeking to raise £50 million locally and internationally to invest in Grade A office space in Belfast. Previously he was Executive Director of Quintain Estates and Development plc. He is the former Chief Executive of Titanic Quarter Limited and prior to that was Chief Executive of the Strategic Investment Board Limited for six years. David was also Chair of CBI Northern Ireland from 2016-2018 having previously been Vice Chair.
Gordon Lyons MLA was appointed as the Northern Ireland Minister for the Economy in July 2022. Gordon was elected as a Councillor for the Coast Road DEA of the Mid and East Antrim Council in May 2014, having previously worked within the East Antrim DUP Constituency Advice Centre. He was appointed to replace Sammy Wilson as MLA for East Antrim in August 2015 and subsequently re-elected in 2017. In January 2020, Gordon was appointed to the Executive as a Junior Minister. Gordon is also a group member on the All-Party groups concerned with Learning disability, Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics and Modern Slavery.
Jennifer Neff is passionate to end avoidable health inequalities. She set up Elemental Software in 2013 with Leeann Monk to connect people, build communities and improve lives. The pair created the Elemental platform designed to establish, scale, and measure the uptake and impact of the social prescribing model of care, a more than medicine approach to health and social care. Elemental is an award winning tech for good company based in Derry that employs over 30 people and that was acquired in 2021 by The Access Group.
Mary McKenna is a technology entrepreneur & these days angel investor. She co-founded wildly successful online learning company Learning Pool in 2006 on the back of a long local government career and a spell as a Silicon Valley dotcommer. She exited the company in May 2014 in order to get back into startup land. Mary invests in female founding teams working on #techforgood projects where, through her experience or network, she can add value. She’s interested in helping start & grow indigenous Irish & British tech companies and especially in working with young and female entrepreneurs. Mary is one of Oxford Foundry & Saïd Business School's (University of Oxford) Resident Experts, an Expert Advisor to the EU's flagship innovation programme the EIC Accelerator & a trustee of CAST (the Centre for Acceleration of Social Technology). She co-founded AwakenHub in Ireland with four of her friends in July 2020 – a cross-border female founder community. In the 2014 New Year’s Honours Mary was awarded the MBE by HM the Queen for services to digital technology, innovation and learning.
Dr Lisa Wilson is a Senior Economist at the Nevin Economic Research Institute and is based in the Belfast office. Her main research interests lie in the areas of labour markets, income distribution, poverty, public expenditure, living standards and well-being. Since taking up her position in the NERI Lisa has been among other things carrying out work concerned with job quality and its economic and social importance, the future of work, the gendered nature of employment, and housing and its impact for living standards in Northern Ireland. Lisa is a native of Donegal, and a graduate of Ulster University and Queen’s University, Belfast. Lisa completed her PhD in Queen’s University, Belfast focusing on income inequality and well-being.
Sandra McNally is a Professor of Economics at the University of Surrey. She is Director of the Education and Skills Programme at the Centre for Economic Performance, London School of Economics. She also directs the Centre for Vocational Education Research (funded by DfE from 2015 to 2020). Her research interests include economic evaluation of government policies in schools and further education and labour market returns to education and training. She is a co-editor of the Economics of Education Review.
Richard Rodgers is Head of Energy at the Department for the Economy where he led the development of the recently published Northern Ireland Executive’s Energy Strategy – The Path to Net Zero Energy. He has almost 35 years’ experience in the energy industry, including British Gas for eight years, Phoenix Natural Gas for 12, as MD (International) at Eaga for five years (responsible for the delivery of fuel poverty programmes for Governments across the world), five years as Strategic Advisor (Energy) at the Strategic Investment Board and for the past three years as Head of Energy in the Department for the Economy in Northern Ireland. Richard was also a non-executive director on the Board of the Utility Regulator for nine years (ending in March 2019).
Kevin Higgins is Head of Policy and Research at Advice NI. He has worked in the advice sector in Northern Ireland for over 30 years, both as an advice worker with an independent advice centre (Advice Officer, Ballynafeigh Community Development Association), with a CAB (Manager, Falls Road Bureau), with Law Centre NI (Legal Adviser) and latterly in a support capacity in his role within Advice NI. Advice NI is the umbrella organisation for the independent advice network in Northern Ireland – annually dealing with over 250,000 enquiries mainly on social security benefits, housing, consumer, employment and debt issues. A large part of his work revolves around addressing social policy issues raised by Advice NI members and responding to consultations. Welfare reform has taken up much of his time since the Coalition Government came to power in 2010, raising awareness of the impacts of the social security benefit cuts and the social security benefit reforms. He was part of the Welfare Reform Mitigations Working Group chaired by Professor Eileen Evason and he is currently an independent member of the DfC NI Joint Standards Committee.
Paul Mac Flynn is co-director of the Nevin Economic Research Institute and is based in the Belfast office. In addition to managing the Belfast office he has co-responsibility for the NERI's research programme and for its strategic direction. He leads on the NERI’s analysis of the Northern Ireland economy along with all research into the impact of the United Kingdom‘s departure from the European Union. Other research areas include regional productivity, the all-island economy and the future of work. He is a graduate of University College Dublin with a BA in Economics and Politics and the University of Bristol with an MSc in Economics and Public Policy, specialising in the economic impacts of political devolution in the UK.