Northern Ireland post-Brexit: challenges & opportunities

Ann McGregor was appointed as CEO of the Northern Ireland Chamber of Commerce and Industry in June 2008.

She is a BA Honours Graduate of Queen’s University, holds a MA Marketing from Ulster University and is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Marketing.

Ann was formerly Chief Executive of Enterprise NI and a director with Business in the Community. She commenced her career in the private sector working in production/materials management with Roche Manufacturing, Schering Plough and Bird’s General Foods before moving into local economic development.

In June 2012, Ann received an MBE for services to small business development and enterprise in the Queen’s Jubilee Birthday Honours. In December 2013 Ann was awarded an Honorary Fellowship by Belfast Metropolitan College for services to small business and enterprise. In December 2017 she was awarded an Honorary Fellowship by Mid and East Antrim Council for services to small business and export.

Ann is a council member of Dublin Chamber of Commerce and a member of British Chambers of Commerce National Accreditation Committee. She is currently the Deputy Chair of the Grand Opera House and a member of the Senate at Queen’s University, Belfast.

Ann has considerable experience on government task forces in areas such as the economy, export and trade, access to finance, health and town centre recovery. Most recently, she was appointed to a transformation advisory panel, which has been re-established to advise the Minister of Health. Tasked with offering their views to the Minister on his work to transform health and social care services, members of the re-established Transformation Advisory Board (TAB) represent a variety of perspectives both from within, and outside of the health and social care system (HSC).

Michael was previously responsible for developing transformative Executive Education Masters programmes at the LYIT Business School, namely the MSc in Innovation Management in the Public Service and the MBS in Innovation and Leadership. His lecturing duties have encompassed the following areas; Business information Systems, Ecommerce, Knowledge Management, Organisational Learning and Innovation. He currently acts as an external reviewer at other HEI’s, and board member for external organisations.

Along with his education duties he had previously developed an extensive profile in academic enterprise and business consulting, including spin-in & spin-out business technology incubator firms, tier 2 automotive industry, and online retailing. He has held several executive directorships in start-up technology companies. His experience includes taking a lead role in a large number of technology & business projects, including an extensive enterprise wide systems re-engineering projects.

Michael started his studies at University College Galway completing a Bachelor of Commerce degree, he subsequently undertook several masters’ degrees and executive education programmes in business, computing/information systems, higher education, research practice, leadership and FinTech innovation at NUI Galway, Ulster University, LYIT, Sheffield University, Northumbria University and Oxford University Said Business School.
Michael is currently Dean of the Business Faculty and a member of the senior management team at Letterkenny Institute of Technology, and has recently taken on the role as President of Letterkenny Chamber of Commerce.

Peter is an engineer by profession having graduated from the University of Ulster with a degree in Mechanical Engineering. Having held a number of engineering positions in the private sector Peter, joined Invest NI in 2002 where he has worked in local economic development supporting business start-ups and also in the food sector team where he worked closely with a portfolio of Invest NI growth companies.

In 2012 Peter moved to the Trade Division and since has been a champion of the opportunities across the Asia Pacific region. A regular visitor to Hong Kong, he was Head of Territory for Asia Pacific in 2016/2017 and was responsible for opening 3 new offices across the region, including Hong Kong.

On his return from Beijing, Peter undertook a secondment opportunity with the Department of the Economy where he established an international trade policy team.

Returning to Invest NI’s trade division in 2020, Peter has been leading on international trade policy work and has been heavily involved in EU Exit matters.

Neal Beatty is a Partner and General Manager of Control Risks’ Hong Kong office. In this role, he is responsible for client relationships in Hong Kong, developing new business with multinational clients, and advising on areas of business risk that impact their operations in Hong Kong, Greater China and the Asia Pacific region.