Belfast International Homecoming 2023

Aislinn is the CTO for Kainos Digital Services, delivering software solutions to customers across commercial, health and public sector.  She helps organisations transform digitally using Cloud technology, Data and AI and Intelligent Automation.  Her work centers on engineering excellence and tech exploration; helping customers make progressive technology decisions with positive impact.  People are at the heart of this; she focuses on developing a culture of support and challenge.

Carol Fitzsimons is Chief Executive of Young Enterprise Northern Ireland (www.yeni.co.uk), part of the global Junior Achievement network. 

Each year, the NGO supports almost 100,000 young people aged 4-25 from all community and backgrounds across Northern Ireland to explore their entrepreneurial potential, with support from volunteer business mentors. 

Carol is an Alumni of the US Boston College Irish Institute exchange on Youth Entrepreneurship and a member of the Vital Voices network.  The impact of the work of the charity in developing a culture of entrepreneurship in young people was recognised during the recent Presidential visit to NI. 

Carol holds the Diploma in Company Direction from the Institute of Directors and is a Chartered Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development. She was awarded the MBE for services to Enterprise and Entrepreneurship in 2016. 

Contact Carol on [email protected] 

A leader in strategy, corporate governance, business development and change / risk management who spent 18 years in Corporate banking as well as senior roles in industry. 

Clare is leading the establishment of an innovation district that will leverage digital, intellectual and real estate assets to grow the Northern Ireland economy.

Clare is passionate about achieving place-based inclusive economic growth aligned with the UN sustainable development goals. 

Clíodhna is responsible for Business Development at the award-winning West Belfast tourism development organisation Fáilte Feirste Thiar, helping to foster the social and economic transformation of West Belfast and playing a leading role in the success of Áras Uí Chonghaile – The James Connolly Visitor Centre. 

Recently elected to Belfast City Council as a Sinn Féin Councillor, Clíodhna is a QUB graduate with a BA in Irish and History and an MA in Irish History. 

She has worked in various industries including developing the national Irish language and cultural festival, Oireachtas na Gaeilge, before moving into tourism and business development.

A leading cultural activist immersed in the Irish language attending Bunscoil Phobail Feirste, Coláiste Feirste and later Rathmore Grammar School, Clíodhna works to advance the language day and daily with her work in the heart of The Gaeltacht Quarter and is a member of the steering group of Fleadh Feirste, a locally based Irish language festival as well as having served as a board member with Ireland’s largest community arts festival, Féile an Phobail. 

Clíodhna is a Director of the Moore Street Preservation Trust, working to preserve and regenerate the 1916 Moore Street Battlefield Site in Dublin and works closely with the relatives of the signatories of the 1916 proclamation.

OBE FCIM

Colin Anderson is a focused and driven individual. Having faced many challenges in his life to date, Colin continues to lead people and companies to both self-belief and corporate success. His commitment to his confidence that Northern Ireland should be a centre of excellence in all its commercial and government sectors, providing best-in-class services to the national and global community, is an inborn part of his DNA.

ANDERSON ADVERTISING LTD | FOUNDER, 1982 Colin founded Anderson Advertising Ltd at the age of 27

(now known as ASG & Partners) and is now Chairman of the business which has become one of Northern Ireland’s foremost marketing communications agencies. ASG & Partners employs over 40 staff and it continues to evolve and thrive in the local marketplace and beyond.

B-SECUR LTD | FOUNDER AND SIGNIFICANT SHAREHOLDER Currently leading the way in global ECG biometric recognition

technology. Now FDA approved in the States (2021) it’s HeartKey product is a set of algorithms and analytics for user identification, health and wellness, ready for integration into leading devices and systems. It employs 72 (March 2022 and increasing) people in Catalyst Inc, the former NI Science Park.

BELFAST INTERNATIONAL HOMECOMING | ORGANIZING COMMITTEE & HONORARY CHAIR, 2015 – 2019
This is an annual event to encourage greater investment and partnership into Belfast by bringing “home” diaspora leaders of commerce, community, and culture from around the world to a single event in Belfast culminating in a final dinner in the Belfast City Hall hosted by the Lord Mayor of the City.

HEENAN-ANDERSON COMMISSION | CO-CHAIR, 2015 Asked by Ivan Lewis (the then Labour Shadow Secretary

of State for Northern Ireland), along with Professor Deidre Heenan of Ulster University, to Co-Chair a Commission (the Heenan-Anderson Commission) to produce a report on how to tackle intergenerational poverty and social exclusion in Northern Ireland.

WEBRECRUIT IRELAND | FOUNDER, 2010 Along with entrepreneur and Dragon’s Den star,

James Caan Colin established one of Northern Ireland’s most innovative recruitment companies, which won the Irish News ‘Recruitment Innovators of the Year’ award in 2012 and continued its award winning success until he sold his company’s equity stake in January 2019.

NORTHERN IRELAND SCREEN | CHAIR, 2001 – 2008 He implemented for the first time ever, a strategy to firmly establish the film and television industry in Northern Ireland as a centre of excellence. He pushed for proper funding for the industry from Government and was eventually awarded £9.9 million for investment into the sector which established the foundation for steering it into its most successful era ever

THE INTERNET BUSINESS LTD (TIBUS) | FOUNDER, 1996 | SOLD TO UTV MEDIA IN 2008.

ACTIVITYBREAKS.COM | FOUNDER

Online travel company founded early in the new millennium and sold it in 2009 to its current Italian owners.

NORTHERN IRELAND CHAMBER OF COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY | PRESIDENT, 1996/1997 AND 1997/1998 Holding this position for two consecutive terms. As Chamber President, created the “Political Lunch Series” over consecutive weeks where the then political leaders spoke to outline their party’s economic policy should a peace settlement be agreed.

AWARDED THE OBE | 1997
For services to the Northern Ireland Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

UNIVERSITY OF ULSTER | VISITING PROFESSOR, 1993 To the University of Ulster, Department of Communication, Faculty of Social and Health Sciences in October 1993. His Lecture was reported by the then Vice Chancellor Trevor Smith as an example of best practice.

NORTHERN IRELAND TOURIST BOARD | MEMBER OF THE BOARD, 1988 – 1994.

DIRECTOR OF THE NORTHERN IRELAND QUALITY CENTRE, 1993 – 1996.

FIRST PURPOSE-BUILT ADVERTISING AGENCY | 1988 Built the first ever purpose-built Advertising Agency in Northern Ireland on the Holywood Road.

HOLYWOOD HOUSE | EARLY NINETIES
Built in Holywood to house the expansion of the company. This became the headquarters of TIBUS.

VARIOUS CHARITY COMMITTEES

Has helped to raise funds for the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award scheme in NI and The Wooden Spoon Society, of which he is an Honorary Life Member.

CHARTERED INSTITUTE OF MARKETING

A Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Marketing and is also a member of the Institute of Directors, and The Royal Television Society.

Conal V Harvey is a Director of Harcourt Developments. He is also Chairman of the Board of Titanic Belfast, the world class visitor attraction which celebrates the birthplace of the Titanic and the maritime and industrial heritage of Belfast. Mr Harvey was also Chairman of the Board of Titanic Quarter, the company responsible for the much acclaimed large waterfront regeneration project in the centre of Belfast from 2005 to 2017 and Executive Chairman of Citywest Luas Limited, the company responsible for the implementation of the suburban rail infrastructure in South Dublin.

A graduate in Engineering from University Dublin, his career has been mainly focussed on business development. He has post-graduate qualifications in management and business strategies from Trinity College Dublin, Irish Management Institute, Dublin and INSEAD, France. Prior to his current position, he has held senior management positions in IDA Ireland, The Irish Governments Investment Agency and led a major programme of Inward Investment to Ireland in the Healthcare and Pharmaceuticals and Property sectors.

Deborah works for Digital Catapult as Director of the UK Digital Twin Centre.  Her role is to accelerate industry adoption of digital twins to drive global competitive advantage for UK businesses.

In her previous role with Belfast City Council she led organisational and service transformation programmes and delivered major efficiency savings.  As founder of the Smart Belfast Programme Deborah established a City Innovation Office and led the delivery of a portfolio of cross sectoral urban innovation initiatives.  She led the successful business case for investment in Digital Innovation as part of the Belfast Region City Deal. 

Deborah has an MSc. in Information Systems Management and was appointed Honorary Professor of Practice in the QUB School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Queen’s University Belfast.

Denis has been Chairman and CEO of Anaeko since 2009, having co-founded the business 4 years prior after leaving his previous position at Openwave.

Prior to Openwave, Denis was the Managing Director and co-founder of APiON. APiON was acquired in 1999 for $250m. At that time, this was the largest acquisition in Northern Ireland’s history. Prior to APiON, Denis held a range of Sales and Partner management roles at Aldiscon (Dublin).

He holds a degree in Business Studies from University College Galway, an MBA from the Michael Smurfit Business School at University City Dublin and postgraduate qualifications in computer science and management information systems. Denis also has a Diploma in Executive Coaching from the Irish Management Institute.

Gareth has been a property developer for over three decades.  He has developed numerous schemes and has a wealth of experience in relation to funding/financing.

He is the Managing Director of Oakland Holdings, the development company behind Belfast’s most exciting commercial development, Merchant Square. The project was completed in Q1 2021, the 9 storey commercial building has transformed the centre of Belfast and is now let entirely to PwC in what will be the Firm’s largest premises in the UK outside London. 

Gareth lives in Belfast and is a former pupil of St Malachys college. He is committed to the ongoing development of Belfast and to ensuring that the city meets its full potential.  Oakland is cuurently developing Northern Ireland’s first Aparthotel at the junction of Queen Street and College Street in the city centre. The ApartHotel  will  feature 189 apartments, a bar and restaurant, gymnasium, meetings rooms and event space. 

Gareth has a young family and he enjoys a range of sports including gaelic football where he is an under age coach with with his local club St Brigids 

Jack is an accomplished global business leader with over 25 years of experience in scaling enterprises and creating shareholder value.  Presently, he focuses on supporting emerging businesses both as a Member of Philadelphia based, Robin Hood Ventures and through his other endeavors as an angel investor and advisor.

Previously,  Jack enjoyed a nearly two-decade run year career run as COO and later also CFO of Martech leader MRP.  Here, a particular career highlight was the period (2014-2017) he spent living in Belfast, providing executive presence and strategic guidance to MRP’s then 150+ employee operation in the city.  Jack was greatly honored to receive a 2018 Belfast Ambassador Medal in recognition of these efforts as well as his conviction for “helping to build a better Belfast”.

Prior to MRP, Jack earned his MBA at University of Virginia, Darden School of Business, and, prior to that, held finance, marketing and business development roles at Johnson & Johnson.   He is a La Salle University graduate and remains active as an alumnus and as a member of the Presidential Advisory Board. Outside of work, he enjoys time with his wife Janelle, and three children Jack, Rory and (Belfast born) Megan, while also supporting a number of organizations committed to the betterment of Ireland.

Jane Adams is the owner of the well-known Belfast Fish & Chip shop chain, Manny’s. She is also owner of Pizza Guyz North Belfast and enjoyed a much-celebrated career in Camogie.  

In 2003 she was awarded the Lynchpin Award, this was predecessor of the All Star awards and in 2008 she was a winner of an All-Star award, the first camogie player in Ulster to achieve this. Jane was awarded the Soaring Star Award in 2010, 2011 and 2013. She was named, Ulster camogie player of the year five times. Jane captained Antrim to be crowned the All-Ireland Junior Camogie Champions in 2010 and again with her club O’Donnovan Rossa to Senior All Ireland Club Champions 2008.

Jane is a founder member of Gaels le Chélie, a Gael-on-Gael campaign spearheaded by county stars and GAA members at grassroots level to encourage conversation on the reunification of Ireland. 

Kerrie joined Maritime Belfast in March 2013 and has over 20 years’ experience working in the tourism sector including 10 years between Belfast City Council and the Northern Ireland Tourist Board, where she was a member of the team that put together the plans for the Titanic Signature Project. Kerrie’s experience is in product and destination development, capital projects and partnership initiatives. 

Since joining Maritime Belfast, Kerrie has led a series of key successes: the award of a £5million grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund’s Enterprise Programme towards the former Harland & Wolff Drawing Offices, to restore them and develop the building into a four-star boutique hotel; the acquisition of Titanic’s little sister the SS Nomadic; and the relocation and restoration of the Great Light. Maritime Belfast’s current focus is the development of the Maritime Mile as a heritage Blueway for the city – representing one navigational mile of water and 10 kilometres of accessible, connected waterfront.   

Laura Leonard is Belfast City Council’s European and International Relations Manager, based in the Place and Economy Department.

Laura has led Northern Ireland’s only dedicated European and International local government team since it was established in September 2003.  

Over the last two decades, Laura and her team have developed and delivered Belfast City Council’s first ever International Relations Framework and Action Plan and is currently managing projects with Chinese, European and North American markets, as well as fostering Belfast’s Sister City relationships with Boston, Nashville, and Shenyang. 

Belfast’s International Relations Framework aims, in partnership to promote the city internationally, with a focus on attracting international students and building education partnerships, securing business and investment, and attracting both business and leisure tourism. 

Over the past two years, Laura has also worked closely with the City Regeneration and Development team; co-managing the City Marketing programme to position the city to secure real estate investment. This work is delivered through the ‘Renewed Ambition’ public-private city partnership.

Laura also supports the promotion of international investment opportunities within the priority areas of Innovation City Belfast, Resilience and Enterprise for council, in partnership with key city players.

Linus Murray is a Partner at Belfast-based commercial law firm McKees. With over 20 years’ experience, Linus specialises in liquor licensing and has a strong track record in helping clients grow their businesses. His experience within the hospitality and leisure sector has been well documented, having acted for notable hoteliers, publicans, off-trade, restaurateurs in the acquisition, disposal, transfer and lease of all types of licensed premises.

Mark is currently the Vice President of Technology Products for Unosquare having previously acted as the Belfast Site Lead.

In recent times Mark been focused on migrating several large enterprise applications to the cloud and the building Cloud Native Systems. Though these developments Mark has been heavily focused on tooling and approaches to make application development easier wutg fewer remote dependencies and more developer control.

Mark has previously given talks at BelTech around ‘Breaking the Monolith’.

As Chief People and Marketing Officer at Belfast City Airport, Michelle has over 25 years’ experience working in several executive leadership roles across various industries including telecommunications, retail, manufacturing, and aviation. Her transformational work with organisations has been recognised with many prestigious awards. On a personal level, Michelle has been awarded several business accolades including Institute of Directors (IOD) Young Director of the Year, IOD NI Director of the year for leadership in corporate responsibility as well as being crowned UK Director of the Year for Leadership. Michelle has also been presented with the prestigious Marks and Spencer’s Sieff Award for Leadership.

Michelle is passionate about community engagement and the role business can play in transforming communities and providing life changing opportunities for Young People.

Michelle is Chair of the award-winning charity Cinemagic, the leading film and television festival for young people in UK and Ireland and a proud Trustee of The Cancer Fund for Children, Ireland.

Marie is a Partner based in the Northern Ireland Public Sector Practice and is an Economist by background. Marie specialises in large scale technology enabled public sector transformation.

Marie has led the development and implementation of transformed operating models for public sector organisations in policing, health, education and social security. Marie is also an expert in the development of Green Book business cases for public sector clients. Marie is a member of the CBI Northern Ireland Regional Council and Chairs the CBI NI Economics Forum representing the views of business across Northern Ireland. She is also on the Board of Directors of the British Irish Chamber of Commerce.

Michele Bryans is Chief Executive of EastSide Partnership, where she has overall responsibility for management and strategic development. 

Michele joined EastSide Partnership in June 2015 and previous roles in the organisation include EastSide Greenways Manager and Community Engagement and Volunteer Manager (Connswater Community Greenway).

Michele has worked in various youth and community roles in east Belfast since 2000, and sits on a variety of management committees. Michele has a BA Honours Degree from Queens University Belfast in European Studies, a Foundation Degree in Counselling Studies from Ulster University and has completed the ILM Level 5 Leadership and Management course.

Michele is passionate about social regeneration and the positive impact of connecting people and place in order to sustain healthy and resilient communities.

Mike Nesbitt MLA is a four-time member of the Northern Ireland Assembly, first elected in May 2011. He was Leader of the Ulster Unionist Party between 2012 and 2017, during which time the Party retained its seat in the European Parliament, grew its representation in local councils and returned to the green benches at Westminster by winning two seats in the 2015 General Election. Currently, Mike is the Party’s economy spokesperson and representative on the Northern Ireland Policing Board. Mike is a former broadcast journalist and Commissioner for the Victims & Survivors of Northern Ireland’s Troubles. In 2022, he successful introduced a Private Member’s Bill updating Northern Ireland’s laws of defamation.

Working with a range of local and international partners, Moira leads the NI Connections team which is based in Belfast within Invest NI’s International division. She works closely with well-established diaspora connections in many locations around the world where Invest NI and a wide range of NI Stakeholders are seeking to help attract trade, investment, business tourism and education opportunities that will benefit the Northern Ireland economy.

Moira is an accomplished leader with an impressive track record in international business and economic development. Her experience spans a diverse range of sectors including financial services, legal & professional services, technology and local and global start-ups.

Leading NI Connections draws on Moira’s experience of inspiring collaboration and engaging with local and national government to drive strategy and policy development. The role draws on her strengths of leading and enabling others to deliver consistently strong results and dynamic, innovative solutions in both the public and private sectors.

Neil is Centre Director at IF and is responsible for the overall running of the Centre. He supports the IF team to deliver high quality space, support and services to IF customers, local businesses and the wider community.

Paul has a background in Planning and Renewable Energy development over the past 20 years. He formed an award-winning planning consultancy in Belfast in 2003 and through his innovative leadership and business development skills, grew it to become one of the leading planning firms in NI. The firm specialised in large scale developments including renewable energy and key infrastructure projects, set apart by its focus on stakeholder engagement and community consultation.

Whilst maintaining his interest in the planning firm, Paul then established Simple Power, a wind energy development company which he grew quickly to be the largest developer of single wind turbines in Northern Ireland, supported by the UK Government ROCs scheme. Having developed, built and operated 52 wind sites, the company was sold to a London renewable energy fund in 2018.

Paul’s passion for renewable energy and the sustainable transition has not faded.  With his ability to build successful teams and spot opportunities, he has quickly led the Strategic Power Group to being a significant developer in renewable technologies.  The pipeline of projects will result in an investment of over €1billion over the next 5 years.

Sarah is Head of Talent and Culture at Aflac Northern Ireland, having joined in November 2019 as part of the leadership team. Sarah is responsible for owning and leading the talent acquisition strategy within the organisation. She helps set the tone for growth and development at Aflac NI, while developing the brand and presence locally. She is also focused on shaping the culture at Aflac NI – a key differentiator in a buoyant technology market. As part of a wider ESG strategy, Sarah is responsible for Aflac NI’s philanthropic efforts and partnerships.

Sarah brings over 18 years of recruiting and leadership experience. Previously, Sarah spent 12 years with Citi onsite in Belfast, working for a global outsourcing provider, AMS. During her time at AMS Sarah managed several multi-located teams throughout Europe, Asia and the Middle East ensuring service delivery and KPI’s were met for the client. Sarah’s responsibilities were to deliver hiring requirements for the client, maintaining the candidate experience, working within scope and budget and help to build brand reputation for the client.

Prior to joining AMS Sarah worked for Capita recruiting for the BBC as well as spending time in small boutique consultancy businesses ranging from recruitment to HR.

Sarah grew up in Melbourne, Australia and interned at Mercer Consulting during her studies. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Human Resource Management from RMIT University.

Suzanne Wylie was appointed Chief Executive of Northern Ireland Chamber of Commerce and Industry (NI Chamber) in August 2023. Having worked across many sectors, and with businesses and politicians throughout Northern Ireland and further afield during her career, Suzanne is relishing her new role with NI Chamber and is keen that NI Chamber plays a significant part in boosting the whole economy.   

Previously she has held significant leadership roles in public services for over 15 years, most recently as the Chief Executive to the Jersey Government, and prior to that, as Chief Executive of Belfast City Council.

In Northern Ireland, Suzanne was instrumental in securing the £1bn Belfast City Region Deal, which is leveraging public and private finance to boost business capability in innovation and technology, as well as enhancing a range of tourism assets.  She also oversaw the delivery of a comprehensive regeneration strategy for Belfast, presenting NI as a place for investment in offices, hotels, visitor attractions, housing and jobs.  

In 2018, Suzanne set up a Growth Commission, chaired by Sir Michael Lyons, which set out a focused approach for economic growth and she led on the development of the Belfast-Dublin Economic Corridor for sectoral cluster growth.  She is a strong advocate for business innovation and for several years, chaired Innovation City Belfast to create an environment where entrepreneurship can thrive. 

She was awarded an OBE, received an honorary doctorate from Queen’s University Belfast earlier this summer, where she also completed her MBA, and is a fellow of the Institute of Directors.         

Suzanne is married with three grown-up children, enjoys cycling, walking and travelling.