Team

Professor Joan Ballantine

Professor of Accounting, Ulster University

Joan is an accounting graduate and Fellow of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (FCCA). After working in industry and gaining her professional qualification, she moved into academia: working at Warwick Business School for eleven years and Queen’s University Belfast for nine years. She is currently a Professor of Accounting, Ulster University (since 2008). She has experience of teaching a range of subjects, including accounting and finance, strategic management accounting, and research methods at both undergraduate and Masters level.

Joan is an active researcher and is passionate about education and gender equality (gender budgeting and gender in senior management). She has secured circa £600k in research funding in the area of gender equality and is currently a co-investigator on an evaluation work package for the EPIC Futures NI Local Policy Innovation Partnership. She has examined numerous doctorates, is widely published and is on the editorial board of several journals.

Joan holds a board position on an Enterprise Agency and is an Independent Assessor for the Commissioner for Public Appointments in Northern Ireland. Joan has organised the Irish Accounting and Finance Association Doctoral Colloquium for the last 15 years and has been the joint convenor of the annual British Accounting and Finance Association (BAFA) Doctoral Masterclasses since 2001.

Professor Laura Bradley-McCauley

Professor of Inclusive Entrepreneurship, Ulster University

Laura is a Professor of Inclusive Entrepreneurship at Ulster University. She has developed, and led, numerous employability initiatives at both strategic and operational levels within the faculty and University. Her research interests include employability typologies and profiling and she is also actively involved in research on SMEs and entrepreneurship.

She has presented at numerous conferences on placement and employability including ASET, HEA and LTSE and published in numerous journals including Industry and Higher Education. She leads on a number of EU funded projects focusing on developing skills and best practice across Europe for young people in terms of skills development and learning and influencing policy through collaboration. Laura is also lead, and partner, on a number of Shared Island Funded Projects including Atlantic Futures and Social Entrepreneurship. She is a Co-Investigator of EPIC Futures NI, funded by UKRI, supporting government, policy makers, community and voluntary sector and other stakeholders including higher education to influence the employability skills and opportunities of the economically inactive.

Furthermore, she is part of a number of university consortiums across the UK and Ireland developing research, applied programmes and funding applications. She regularly undertakes consultancy with SMEs across the island of Ireland. She is a board member of a number of third sector organisations and is an external examiner at a number of UK and Irish Universities. She supervises PhD students on the future of work and digital technologies.

Laura is passionate about outreach and widening participation and has developed many programmes across schools in Northern Ireland to support skills development in young people in the areas of entrepreneurship. She has strong industry links and is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Marketing and a member of the Chartered Institute of Marketing Ireland Management Group. She is also Ulster University Business School lead on the Help to Grow programme targeted at SMEs.

Thomas Byrne

Director of Innovation and Consultancy, Department of Finance

Thomas Byrne is the Director of Innovation & Consultancy Services (ICS) in the Department of Finance.

He leads a team that works collaboratively with clients across the public sector to help deliver better outcomes for our people through independent advice, insights and service improvement.

Thomas is an economist by background and has previously held roles in economic development, energy policy and public finances within the Northern Ireland Civil Service.

He is a Fulbright Scholar and holds a BA (Hons) in Economics and MSc in Applied Economics, both from Ulster University. Innovation and Consultancy Services (ICS) | Department of Finance

Lynn Carvill

Chief Executive, Womens’Tec

Lynn is Chief Executive of WOMEN’STEC, having a 25 + year career in the third sector. WOMEN’STEC is headquartered in North Belfast with satellite workshops in Newry and Derry City and specialises in the delivery of non-traditional skills training and the promotion of opportunities in sectors where women are typically under-represented, mainly the construction industry. WOMEN’STEC engages women from disadvantaged backgrounds and areas.

Lynn has led WOMEN’STEC through a period of significant change. Much of the organisations recent success and growth, is the result of strong collaborative partnerships with the construction industry and other third sector partners. Her background in labour market inclusion and gender justice advocacy has strengthened WOMEN’STEC’s service delivery resulting in greater positive impacts on the lives of women and girls they engage. She is passionate in empowering women and girls to reach their full economic potential.

Lynn is a founding member and Chair of the Northern Ireland Women’s Budget Group and from 2018 – 2020 was a Commissioner on the UK wide Commission on a Gender Equal Economy.

Dr Shirley Davey

Lecturer in Management Development, Ulster University

Shirley has over 15 years’ experience teaching and developing innovative learning materials for higher education. With a professional background in business engagement, research & innovation she is co-creating education initiatives with companies and large organisations to meet the needs of future work in times of dynamic global change. She is a published author and an invited speaker at international conferences.

In her role as EU Lead for Connected Health with the European Commission, she worked with Industry, Health & Social Care Organisations and Universities to secure large amounts of funding (over €40M for NI) for the Connected Health sector under Horizon 2020. She has managed projects with Health Care Trusts, multinational companies (such as GE, IBM, J&J) and government agencies. She collaborates with NHS organisations and international research centres of excellence; successes in this area included establishing an MOU with the Medical Device Development Centre - M2D2 in Boston which was signed by the Senate President and the N. Ireland Health Minister.

Paula Devine

Co-Director, Ark, Queen's University Belfast

Dr Paula Devine is Deputy Director of Access Research Knowledge (ARK) and is based in the School of Sociology, Social Policy and Social Work at Queen's University Belfast.

With over 25 years of experience of running and analysing large-scale attitudinal surveys, Paula is coordinator of the Northern Ireland Life and Times Survey. She has also worked on the management of the Young Life and Times Survey and Kids' Life and Times Survey since their inception.

Her research interests include children's use of the Internet, gender and masculinity, identity and quantitative methods.

Anne Dickson

Executive Director, Chief Executives Forum

Anne Dickson is the Executive Director of the Chief Executive’s Forum, working to its board to develop and deliver its policies and services. Anne brings almost 20 years’ public sector experience to the post, most recently as Interim Chief Executive of the General Teaching Council for Northern Ireland.

Prior to this, she was Principal Private Secretary to the deputy First Minister, working in the Private Office from 2007 – 2016. In this role, Anne worked at the heart of the devolved institutions, attending the Northern Ireland Executive, the North South Ministerial Council and British Irish Council.

Previously, Anne was a Principal Information Officer in both the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment and the Department of Education.

Before entering the public service, Anne worked in corporate communications in a number of private sector organisations.

Mark-Durkin

Professor of Marketing and Executive Dean of Faculty of Business and Law, Open University

Prior to joining Open University as Executive Dean Mark was Executive Dean of the Ulster University Business School with a presence across Northern Ireland, London, Birmingham and Doha.

Prior to entering academia, he spent over a decade in various service, sales and strategic marketing roles within the Bank of Ireland Group. He completed his PhD in 2005 (Loughborough University, UK) which focused on remote banking relationships, and he was awarded the UK Chartered Institute of Marketing’s ‘Marketing Person of the Year’ in 2006 in recognition of his contribution to marketing education in Ireland. Mark completed all his higher education on a part-time basis. Mark has held senior positions at Ulster in both academic leadership and professional services leadership contexts.

Mark is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Marketing, a Fellow of the Institute of Banking, a Fellow of the Institute of Directors and is a Senior Fellow of the UK’s Higher Education Academy. In 2020 he was elected by members to the International Board of the Chartered Institute of Marketing and in 2022 was elected Vice-Chair. He serves in a voluntary capacity as a Director on the board of Friends of the Cancer Centre and sits on the Board of Governors for Aquinas Grammar School in Belfast.

Mark’s research interest is in financial services marketing and a recent focus has been that of alternative finance platforms, especially the role of crowd-funding solutions, for SME financing. He has published over 50 peer reviewed academic papers and is an invited scholar to Babson College in Boston, is visiting professor to Hubei Normal University (China) and is honorary professor at Hubei GEO University (China).

Professor Ann-Marie Gray

Professor of Social Policy, Ulster University

Ann Marie Gray is Professor of Social Policy at Ulster University in the areas of devolution, governance and social policy and gender and social policy. She is also co-director of the ARK research centre.

Her work has often included building cross sectoral links and supporting wide engagement with academic research. Of particular importance in Northern Ireland has been ARK’s role in supporting critical policy debate to effect change, including on politically controversial issues. She is chair of the Ulster University Research Ethics Committee.

Marie is currently Chair of the UK Social Policy Association and she was a member of the Social Policy and Social Work REF 2021 panel.

Dr Alison Hampton

Senior Lecturer in Entrepreneurship, Ulster University

Alison has worked within the Ulster University Business School, as an innovative educator for the last twenty one years. Her research and teaching focus is in the field of entrepreneurship and strategy. She has worked extensively within the SME community in Northern Ireland, having experience of developing strategic growth plans; alongside engagement in academic enterprise and knowledge exchange projects involving mentoring company practitioners.

Alison has researched and published in the area of female entrepreneurial network dynamics, with a focus on minority and ethnic groups.

Amy Heaps

Research Associate, Ulster University

Amy Heaps specializes in behavioural science, with research interests focusing on the wellbeing, employment, labour, attitudes, and behaviour change of populations in Northern Ireland and the UK. She is proud to collaborate with EPIC Futures NI to examine the attitudes and behaviours of Northern Ireland's population toward employment and labour.

Leveraging her expertise in both qualitative and quantitative research methods, Amy contributes valuable insights into current behavioural trends. Her work aims to facilitate behavioural change among targeted demographics, fostering improved wellbeing, confidence, and employment rates across the region.

Gareth Hetherington

Director Ulster University Economic Policy Centre, Ulster University

Gareth Hetherington MBE is the Director of Northern Ireland's leading economic policy think tank. Gareth undertakes a wide range of economic policy research projects on behalf of the Centre's public and private sector sponsors.

Gareth is currently developing a skills barometer for the Northern Ireland economy to estimate areas of under and over supply of skills from the Further and Higher Education system. He is editor of the Ulster University Economic Policy Centre (UUEPC) 6 monthly economic outlook and delivery of economic business briefings to sponsor clients.

Gareth also undertakes detailed economic impact analyses of government spending and fiscal policy proposals (e.g. the impact of reducing/ abolishing Air Passenger Duty (APD) in Northern Ireland). He also delivers undergraduate and post graduate teaching to economics students.

Colin Jess

Chief Executive, Social Enterprise Northern Ireland

Social Enterprise NI (SENI) is the representative body for the sector in NI. It brings together organisations from all sectors to focus on promoting how to develop the economic conditions to support those furthest from the labour market and to tackle economic inactivity, seeking to provide opportunities for the hidden unemployed.

SENI has an ethos at its heart of developing partnerships with all sectors, to collectively work towards shared and to ensure the voice of social enterprise is heard. This ensures that opportunities are provided to social enterprises to grow, develop and through working alongside private and public sector bodies create the atmosphere for many to gain skills that they wouldn’t have previously gained.

Claire Lynch

Project Manager, Epic Futures NI

Claire Lynch is the EPIC Futures Project Manager. She has 16 years’ experience of local government, stakeholder engagement, project management and multi-agency partnerships. Her interests include participative practice, children and young people and health, and wellbeing. Creating systems, processes and environments which enable equality of opportunity.

Claire has consistently worked across political and organisational boundaries to enable collaborative and innovative solutions to existing challenges. Recent projects include leading the first UNICEF UK Child Friendly Cities and Communities Initiative in Northern Ireland. A multi-agency, systemic change initiative helping children to realise their rights through changes in funding, service design, delivery, policy, and programmes. Claire also managed Youth 19, an award-winning programme of projects empowering young people to take the lead and Make Change Happen.

Mark Magill

Principal Economist, Ulster University Economic Policy Centre

Mark Magill is a Principal Economist working in Ulster University’s Economic Policy Centre (UUEPC).

Mark has over 20 years continuous experience undertaking economic research and analysis. Mark’s research interests include skills forecasting, labour market analysis, economic policy research and economic impact modelling.

Mark lead’s UUEPC’s labour market and skills research, recent projects include research into Northern Ireland’s future skills needs, measuring hidden unemployment, underemployment and barriers facing disabled persons in the labour market.

Mark is co-director of EPIC Futures, a board member of both the NI Skills Council’s Skills Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (SEDI) sub-committee and the Belfast City Region Deal Employability and Skills board.

Joseph Van Matre

Research Associate, Ulster University

Joseph Charles Van Matre is a Research Associate at the Ulster University Business School supporting the EPIC Futures NI research program. His research focuses on youth and adolescent development in educational settings, the social context of policy development, and program evaluation.

He brings experience in quantitative and qualitative research methods and has held staff research positions at the University of California, Stanford University, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, and WestEd.

Rebekah McCabe

Head of Northern Ireland, Involve

Rebekah leads on Involve's work in Northern Ireland. Her focus is on developing the awareness, understanding, and use of participatory and deliberative tools across government and civil society.

Prior to joining Involve, Rebekah worked for 6 years in the voluntary sector in Northern Ireland, developing programmes and projects with a focus on community participation, education, and research, especially in the context of place and community.

Rebekah has a PhD which explored urban sustainability, symbolic landscapes, and contested spaces. She's an experienced ethnographer, conducting fieldwork in New York City, the US-Mexico border regions, and Belfast.

Outside of Involve, Rebekah is the Chair of the Northern Ireland Open Government Network and campaigns for more transparent and participatory urban planning in Belfast.

Professor Martin McCracken

Research Director, Business and Management, Ulster University

Martin McCracken is Research Director and Professor of Work and Employment at Ulster University, N. Ireland. His research is focused mainly upon understanding how HR professionals can ensure that Human Capital is effectively managed and deployed in organisations.

He has published academic papers and policy reports on HR professional effectiveness,  skills development and employability issues in journals such as Human Resource Management Journal, Work Employment and Society, and The Journal of Rural Studies.

Martin has played a key role in carrying out UK research projects commissioned by (amongst others): UKRI, CIPD, Department for Education and Employment; Sector Skills Development Agency and Leonardo Da Vinci Research Programme (EU).

Dr Marian McLaughlin

Senior Lecturer, Ulster University

Dr Marian McLaughlin is a Senior Lecturer within the School of Psychology at Ulster University. She is a Charted Psychologist and an Associate Fellow of the British Psychological Society. She is also Co-Chair of the Northern Ireland Branch of the Division of Health Psychology.

Her research focuses on behaviour change, in particular theoretical applications for the design and evaluation of behavioural change interventions. She has published extensively in this area and has attracted significant grant income including funding from the BBSRC, ESRC, the R&D Office, the Health Services Executive, Baily Thomas and Northern Ireland Chest Heart and Stroke.

Lisa McIlvenna

Deputy Managing Directory, Business in the Community, Northern Ireland

Lisa McIlvenna has over 15 years of experience leading the responsible business network in Northern Ireland and is a passionate advocate for sustainability, ESG, and purpose in the corporate sector. As Deputy Managing Director at Business in the Community Northern Ireland (BITCNI), she helps businesses identify and implement responsible solutions to social, environmental, and economic challenges while promoting responsible business practices across the region.

Lisa spearheaded the creation and delivery of Northern Ireland's only responsible business standard, CORE, which benchmarks and recognizes the sustainability performance of businesses. She also leads the BITCNI Advisory Services team, providing innovative and tailored support to companies on their responsible business strategies, measurement, and reporting.

In addition to her role at BITCNI, Lisa is an adjunct faculty member at Queen's University Belfast, where she teaches and supervises postgraduate students on responsible business and corporate governance topics. Her mission is to inspire and enable businesses to be a force for good in society

Anne McVicker

Director, Women's Resource and Development Agency

Anne McVicker is the Women's Resource & Development Agency (WRDA) Director, she has an extensive wealth of experience acquired over the past thirty-eight years delivering community development, skills building, strategic planning, equality & human rights training and peace-building activities within the Women's Sector.

Anne has held a wide variety of roles, from working as a Welfare Rights and Housing Worker to working across communities playing a significant role in both the establishment & development of Shankill Women's Centre and WOMEN'STEC.

Molly Meade

Marketing and Business Development Intern

Lisa Messina

Senior Lecturer, Entrepreneurship & Innovation, Queen's University Belfast

Lisa's research interests cut across the fields of entrepreneurship, innovation and international business. In particular, her research has focused on international and academic entrepreneurship, technology transfer, innovation, dynamic capabilities and SME strategic management.

Lisa's teaching focuses on the broad areas of innovation management, international business, leadership and general management theory.

Dr Keith Millar

Senior Lecturer in Operations Management, Ulster University

Dr Keith Millar is a Senior Lecturer in Operations Management at Ulster University, a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, and a Chartered Fellow of the Chartered Management Institute.  With a professional background in both the public and private sectors, he has almost 20 years’ experience in global supply chain management, digital transformation, business improvement, and risk management, and continues to engage with industry through Knowledge Transfer initiatives across Ireland.

His teaching areas include operations management, process improvement, and digital business, and his research interests are operational excellence, digital transformation, and organisational culture

Professor Kristel Miller

Professor of Entrepreneurship and Small Business Development, Ulster University

Kristel Miller is a Professor of Entrepreneurship and Small Business Development at Ulster University. Her expertise intersects the fields of innovation, entrepreneurship, strategy and regional competitiveness.

Kristel’s research has attracted over £5 million of research funding to date working with businesses, community and voluntary sector and policy makers. She is the principal investigator of a £4.8 million UKRI funded Local Policy Innovation Partnership called EPIC Futures NI, which seeks to provide an evidence base for policy and programmes related to helping individuals access fair and inclusive employment across Northern Ireland. She is also a co-investigator on a €4 million Shared Island cross-border project, Atlantic Futures, which explores how to enhance regional development on the west coast of the Island of Ireland.

Kristel has published widely in internationally renowned journals, and is a regular speaker at international conferences and events. She is also a director of Innovation Ulster Limited, which is a university technology commercialisation spin-out vehicle. Kristel is an expert reviewer for the European Commission and the ESRC and also engages with SMEs to help them grow their business.

Heather Moorhead

Northern Ireland Director, Northern Ireland Confederation of Health and Social Care

Heather Moorhead was appointed as the Director of the Northern Ireland Confederation for Health and Social Care (NICON) in May 2010.

Prior to this, Heather was CEO of the Northern Ireland Local Government Association where she supported and facilitated local government improvement & modernisation.

Heather was also previously Director of the Sustainable Northern Ireland Programme where she was responsible for developing the organisation which provided advice and guidance to government departments on sustainable development issues.

Heather’s earlier career was spent in the field of Environmental Health and she held positions across various specialisms including health and safety, consumer protection, training and health promotion.

Heather is a member of the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health, the Society of Local Authority Chief Executives and the Northern Ireland Chief Executives' Forum.

Professor Duncan Morrow

Director of Community Engagement, Ulster University

Professor Malachy O’Neill

Director of Regional Engagement, Ulster University

Professor Ó Néill is Director of Regional Engagement at Ulster University (since August 2021) and is currently Interim Director of Development and Alumni Relations. He is former Provost of Ulster University’s Derry/Londonderry Campus (2016-21) and Head of the School of Irish Language and Literature (2012-2017).

He has played a central role in a range of strategic initiatives for the University including City and Growth Deals (UK Government), Shared Island (Irish Government), the inception of a School of Medicine (opened 2021), the development of the North West Cross-border Tertiary Cluster (with FE/HE partners), the establishment of a Manchester United Foundation Hub and the accreditation of Derry/Strabane as a UNESCO Learning City Region.

He was awarded a Personal Chair in Irish (2020) and appointed to the Department for Communities’ Irish Language Strategy Expert Advisory Panel in 2021. Prof. Ó Néill is Lead Investigator (Northern Ireland) in the €4million Shared Island social capital ‘Atlantic Futures’ research initiative with NUI Galway, University of Limerick and Atlantic Technological University and a member of the EPIC Futures NI (UKRI) steering group, funded by UKRI as part of the Local Policy Innovation Partnership (March 2024).

He is Temporary Chair of the Governing Body of North West Regional College (since June 2023) and a member of the Irish Language, Literature and Celtic Cultures Committee of the Royal Irish Academy.  Prof. Ó Néill is also a Director of Causeway Chamber of Commerce and Londonderry Chamber of Commerce.

Dami Osekita

Research Associate, Ulster University

Dr. Dami Osekita is a Research Associate on the Evaluation Workstream of EPIC Futures NI, hosted by the Ulster University Business School. She brings about 14 years of experience across civil society, academia, and research, with a PhD in Sociology from Queen’s University Belfast.

Her doctoral research focused on international children’s rights governance and examined how state-civil society cooperate to create enabling environments for children's rights implementation. She also holds a Master of Social Sciences degree in Diplomacy and International Relations and a BSc. in Public Administration. She has extensive experience in qualitative research methods, including case studies and accountability approaches, and also has years of experience managing projects and advocating for marginalised and minority groups.

Additionally, she currently serves as a Council member of the African Scholars Research Network at Queen’s University Belfast. Her interests extend to counter-terrorism, geopolitics, history, transnational crime, and international law, highlighting her commitment to social justice and global governance reform

Steve Pollard

Lecturer in Management Development, Ulster University

Steve’s experience working on the skills agenda includes owning and running companies delivering apprenticeships, employability and return to work programmes. He has experience as a senior manager in the Further & Higher Education sector and spent 8 years on the Board of Governors SERC, including as Chair of the Education Committee which oversees college strategy and planning. He has run a Local Enterprise Agency, a Community Economic Regeneration Scheme and has considerable experience within the social enterprise sector.

Steve enjoyed time at BITC NI working on the responsible business agenda, time as a retained consultant linking the Irish Tech Sector to those furthest removed from the labour market plus work in specific contexts such as gender, youth, socio-economic disadvantage and health. This includes support to start & grow social enterprises, work as a Business Adviser and as a Non-Executive Director.

In terms of the skills and employment agenda his experience has been gained in multiple settings. His current focus on inclusive entrepreneurship includes entrepreneurship as a labour market pathway. Steve is Interested in what works and building an increasingly evidence based approach to policy and practice.

Dr Susann Power

Senior Lecturer in Sustainable Tourism and Hospitality, Ulster University

Susann research is based on people’s behaviours, personalities, decision-making and ethical judgement approaches in various contexts: pro-environmental behaviour related to circular waste management, entrepreneurial traits in sustainable business, judgement and decision-making vis-à-vis sustainability paradoxes. Behaviour, and how we can influence this, is at the core of her research.

As a Senior Lecturer in the Ulster University Business School and a specialist in business ethics, sustainability and entrepreneurship, Susann is ideally placed to lead the interdisciplinary work stream on behavioural insights. She chairs the Faculty’s Sustainability Committee; and leads the Faculty’s Green Academy skills programme embedding sustainability competencies in education and development.

Dr Rachael Singleton

Behavioural Scientist & Ulster University Lecturer

Rachael Singleton is a Behavioural scientist and Ulster University Business School lecturer. She has worked across NI government departments in supporting the design and delivery of public policy by applying behavioural science to tackle societal, environmental and economic challenges. This has ranged from debtor behaviour to COVID transmission, and from net zero to business innovation. Her PhD in behavioural science and user-centred design focuses in particular on pro-environmental behaviour change. She is Chair of Sustainable NI, a member of the Blue Flag Awards jury and a keen STEM ambassador.

Rachael enjoys working to engage deeper understanding of human behaviour to support people and place, and working with those same people using co-design to ensure they are active in the decision making and change processes that result. She is particularly invested in approaches that deliver new understanding of value; both environmental and societal.

Karen Smith

Head of Contracted Services, Disability Action

Disability Action is the largest disabled persons led organisation in Northern Ireland (NI) and pan-disability charity, representing the views of 300+ member groups and individuals. We deliver diverse services developed for and by d/Deaf and disabled people, people with long-term health conditions and illnesses and people who are neurodiverse, reaching 100,000 service users and their families and support networks annually.

We are a respected community and voluntary sector leader in disability rights, equality and inclusion for over 30 years and are a member of NICVA, Co3 and NIUSE. We collaborate within a diverse Voluntary and Community and Social Enterprise Sector of over 8,000 organisations and groups throughout NI. As one of 14 co-investigators within EPIC Futures NI, Disability Action will bring direct engagement with individuals, groups and networks with ‘lived experience’ of the ‘hidden unemployed’ within the economically inactive population. We will provide evidence-based insights, activities and impacts, to help to co-design significant improvements to the economic and social prosperity of NI.

Anthony Soares

Director, The Centre for Cross Border Studies

Anthony is Director of the Centre for Cross Border Studies. His role includes leading in the development and advocacy of policies at regional, national and European levels that support sustainable cross-border and transnational cooperation.

This has increasingly meant coordinating the CCBS responses to the UK’s referendum on EU membership and its aftermath, publishing Briefing Papers and reports, submitting evidence to parliamentary committees in both Westminster and Dublin, and consulting with a range of political representatives and organisations on the island of Ireland, in Great Britain and in Europe.

Professor Jonathan Wallace

Professor of Innovation, Ulster University

Jonathan Wallace is a Professor in innovation at Ulster University. He has been awarded both a Distinguished Business Fellowship and Distinguished Teaching Fellowship.

With over 20 years of experience, Jonathan has generated more than £4.2 million for Ulster University through research commercialisation, consultancy, and collaboration. A leader in Connected Health, he co-founded the TRAIL Living Lab and serves on numerous health and innovation advisory groups. Jonathan contributes to over 99 publications and cutting-edge academic programs.

Deirdre Ward

Director of Work and Wellbeing, Northern Ireland Civil Service

Deirdre was appointed the Director of Work and Wellbeing in September 2018 with responsibility for Employability and Disability and Work policy and delivery of labour market interventions.

Deirdre was appointed Deputy Director of Housing in Housing Division in DSD in April 2012. Deirdre had responsibility for the Supporting People budget, Fuel Poverty and Homelessness. Deirdre was Business Development Director of Ordnance Survey of Northern Ireland since March 2007. In this position she was responsible for the strategic direction for all sales, marketing and product activity.

Between 2002 and 2007, Deirdre was a Business Development Manager for Invest Northern Ireland, responsible for the implementation of an Accelerated Entrepreneurship Strategy. This involved researching best practise worldwide in Small and Medium Sized Enterprises, organisational training needs analysis, benchmarking best practise, project management and assisting consultants in the development of performance measures and indicators for the Global Start team.

Prior to this role, Deirdre was located in America working for Invest Northern Ireland for 3 years. She was tasked with selling Northern Ireland to American Companies so that they would relocate here and benefit our economy. To do this, Deirdre identified and targeted potential inward investment companies in key industrial sectors, built relationships and influenced key decision makers.

An employee of the Civil Service since 1993, Deirdre has had various other roles including; Scientific Officer, Analytical Chemist and Business Consultant.

Originally from a scientific background, Deirdre has since completed a Masters in Business Administration and numerous development courses involving selling, project management, process mapping and benchmarking and a Diploma in Personnel Management.

Graeme Wilkinson

Director of Skills, Department for the Economy

Graeme Wilkinson is a seasoned finance professional and the Finance Director at the Department of Agriculture, Environment, and Rural Affairs in Northern Ireland. He is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants, with a background in public sector financial management and change initiatives.

Over his career, Graeme has served in key roles across various departments, including employment, justice, and regional development. Experienced in managing budgets, he has been instrumental in enhancing public services.

Graeme remains a prominent figure in Northern Ireland's civil service leadership.