Annual Northern Ireland
Economic Conference 2024

Fiona Bennington is a multi-award-winning product design engineer and 3-time founder with a keen interest in the power of design to improve lives. As the Director of Entrepreneurship and Scaling at Catalyst, she works to provide programmatic support and advice for new start-ups, innovators and entrepreneurs who wish to make their ideas a reality, to a full spectrum of people from young people in schools and educators right through to scaling companies and corporate partners. Recently she has been working on the development of regional entrepreneurship support design with MIT and has been piloting new diversity and innovation focused entrepreneurship support activity in Northern Ireland.

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.

Dr Alex Chapman is a Senior Economist at the New Economics Foundation. Over seven years at NEF Alex has focused on the economics and policy of the green transition. His work explores issues relating to green skills and just transition, carbon taxation, and the impacts of the transition on consumers through energy bills and prices. Prior to joining NEF Alex was a researcher at the University of Southampton and consultant for the Asian Development Bank where he worked on the economics of adapting to climate change.

Chris Giles is an economic commentator at the Financial Times, writing columns and newsletters on global economics, the UK economy and central banking. Previously, he was the FT's economics editor for 19 years, having previously served as a leader writer. His reporting beat covered global and UK economic affairs. Before joining the FT as economics editor, he was an economics reporter for the BBC, worked for Ofcom, the telecommunications regulator and started his career with seven years as an economist for the Institute for Fiscal Studies. Chris loves numbers.

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.

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 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.

Mark McAleer is the Quality Experience Manager within the Open Innovation team at Catalyst. He develops the business systems that Catalyst work with, making improvements on how they can better serve their members and entrepreneurs. Within the Open Innovation team, he acts as a consultant to companies providing support on their business systems with focus on Innovation Management. Prior to working with Catalyst, Mark worked as a product designer and mechanical engineer in the Life and Physical Science industries developing products for universities and research institutions.

Helen McCarthy was appointed as the Executive’s first Chief Scientific and Technology Adviser in June. Professor McCarthy is currently Chair of Nanomedicine in the School of Pharmacy at Queen’s University. After 10 years of research on novel delivery systems for vaccines Helen spun out her technology into pHion Therapeutics. She was CEO for 6 years and secured almost £10million in funding from Innovate UK. During this time, she won INVENT NI and the All-Ireland Seedcorn Awards.

Seamus McGuinness is a Research Professor and the Research Area Co-ordinator for labour market research at the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI). Prior to joining the Institute, he held posts at Queen’s University Belfast, the Northern Ireland Economic Research Centre and the Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic & Social Research (University of Melbourne). He obtained his PhD in Economics from Queen’s University Belfast in 2003. Most of his published research has been in the areas of labour economics and the economics of education. He has also published research in the areas of industrial relations, small business economics, regional economics, and the economics of constitutional change in Ireland. In addition to his work on the Irish labour market, he has also led a number of European labour studies involving numerous international research partners. Seamus is also a research fellow in the Institute of Labour Studies (IZA) in the University of Bonn and an Adjunct Professor in the department of economics at Trinity College Dublin.

Conor Murphy MLA was appointed Economy Minister on 3 February 2024. Having first been elected to the Assembly in 1998, Mr Murphy served as Finance Minister between 2020 and 2022 and Minister for Regional Development between 2007 and 2011. He has also been a member of the Enterprise, Trade and Investment Committee and the Public Accounts Committee. Mr Murphy was MP for Newry and Armagh between 2005 and 2015.

Kathleen O’Hare, Chair of the Northern Ireland Skills Council, has held roles such as Vice-Chair of the CCEA, and membership on the QUB Senate, Belfast Metropolitan College Governing Body and Director of the Integrated Education Fund. She serves on the Teachers Regulation Body in England and Wales and contributed to the Department of Education's Fair Start panel. She was Principal of St Cecilia's in Derry (2002-2018) and Hazelwood Integrated College in Belfast and is a Fellow of the International Peace School at Messines. She was honoured as Freeman of the City of London in 2011. Currently, a leadership consultant for the British Council, she presents globally and supervises Action Research Projects with school leaders. Her accolades include UK Headteacher of the Year (2009), Headteacher of the Year in Belfast (2017), and being awarded an OBE in the King's New Year's Honours List this year.

Joann Rhodes’ current role as Chief Executive of HIRANI provides support to accelerate collaborative health research and innovation from the lab-clinic-patient-home. She connects knowledge with opportunities to drive health and prosperity for the citizens of Northern Ireland, the health services and the wider, global health and life sciences economy. She also holds advisory positions at TopMD, Discovery Park, and the British Pharmacological Society. Joann started her career as a cellular pharmacologist and industry fellow at Imperial College developing novel immunomodulation therapies for COPD, delivering clinical biomarker rationale for 4+ novel therapeutics to accelerate progression to the clinic. Since 2011, Joann has sought to facilitate industry-academic partnerships delivering the £16M US-UK Pfizer Rare Diseases Consortium for collaborative commercialisation of small molecule and gene therapy programmes, and as Chief of Staff at Merck UK R&D Laboratories (2018-2020), to realise the start-up vision for the new collaborative £1.3B UK R&D Innovation laboratories for Neurodegeneration at The Francis Crick Institute, in London. Joann is also an honorary visiting Professor at Ulster University and recently graduated from with an Executive MBA from Imperial College, London where she also won the Dean’s award and Joan Woodward Prize for Organisational Strategy.

Ann Watt is Director of Pivotal, the independent public policy think tank for Northern Ireland. Since its launch in 2019, Ann has developed Pivotal’s role as an independent policy voice, through research, analysis and commentary. Before Pivotal, Ann was the Head of the Electoral Commission in Northern Ireland from 2014-2019. Ann started her career as a civil servant in London, working in the Treasury, Home Office and Cabinet Office for 15 years.

Richard Williams has led Northern Ireland Screen for over 20 years during which time the organisation has played a key role in the development and growth of a diverse and sustainable screen industry. The organisation supports large-scale production, TV drama, independent film, factual/entertainment, Irish Language and Ulster-Scots content, animation, games and interactive content, and over the years has funded many award-winning projects including Steve McQueen’s Camera D’Or winning HUNGER; Terry and Oorlagh George’s Oscar® winning THE SHORE, Michael Lennox’s BAFTA winning BOOGALOO AND GRAHAM, Lisa McGee’s EMMY Award winning DERRY GIRLS and most recently Ross White and Tom Berkeley’s Oscar® winning AN IRISH GOODBYE. Under his leadership, Northern Ireland Screen developed the Paint Hall as Titanic Studios, home of HBO’s GAME OF THRONES for eight seasons; drove the creation of Belfast Harbour Studios; and supported the creation of Studio Ulster, the virtual production facility owned by Ulster University to open in 2025. Richard previously worked for Waddell Media, represented Northern Ireland on PACT, worked in newspaper management and was a commercial solicitor. He is a member of BAFTA, received a Northern Ireland RTS Award and was awarded an OBE in 2019.

Professor Sam Turner is the CEO of the Advanced Manufacturing Innovation Centre (AMIC), a £98m industry led innovation centre at Queens University Belfast where he is seconded from the High Value Manufacturing Catapult exec team. Sam brings over 15 years leadership experience in industry led manufacturing innovation centres from his time as CTO at both HVM Catapult and AMRC Sheffield. Sam’s 25+ years of experience in manufacturing innovation covers machining, manufacturing digitalisation and industrial decarbonisation.

Jonathan McAdams is the Chief of Staff at the NI Fiscal Council. The Council was established under the New Decade New Approach Agreement between the NI Executive and UK Government. Jonathan was previously a senior civil servant in the Department of Finance, and in the Northern Ireland Office during the absence of the Executive. Jonathan is a director on the Board of Action Mental Health, a leading Mental Health Charity.

Professor Sam Turner is the CEO of the Advanced Manufacturing Innovation Centre (AMIC), a £98m industry led innovation centre at Queens University Belfast where he is seconded from the High Value Manufacturing Catapult exec team. Sam brings over 15 years leadership experience in industry led manufacturing innovation centres from his time as CTO at both HVM Catapult and AMRC Sheffield. Sam’s 25+ years of experience in manufacturing innovation covers machining, manufacturing digitalisation and industrial decarbonisation.

Chris Johnston works for the Agrifood & Biosciences Institute (AFBI), an arms-length NDPB of DAERA and has responsibility for AFBI’s Agri-Environmental Technologies unit at Hillsborough in Northern Ireland. The facility was opened in January 2009 and coordinates the research being conducted across AFBI in areas relevant to environmental sustainability of agriculture and includes bioenergy, AD, nutrient processing & water quality protection. He has over 18 years’ experience in the Bioenergy & Biomass sector in both a SME and a public sector capacity. His work also supports technology transfer activities with Farmers, Research, Industry, Government & Education.

Marie Cowan is the Director of the Geological Survey of Northern Ireland and a senior management board member at the British Geological Survey. Marie is a member of the Institute of Directors (IoD) and holds an IoD diploma in Company Direction. Marie is also Professional Geologist with the Institute of Geologists of Ireland. Marie is an elected Member of the Royal Irish Academy and a member of the Northern Ireland Assembly All-Party Group for Science and Technology. She currently chairs Northern Ireland’s Geothermal Advisory Committee for the Department for the Economy; this year Marie was awarded the Geological Society of London Energy Group medal for her work.