Our Board

John Healy OBE is a highly experienced senior executive with 30 years of experience in the technology sector, mostly gained in the financial service industry. He has extensive experience in leading global teams, developing strategy and delivering solutions to address business and technology issues.

He was the Managing Director of Allstate NI, where he served from January 2016 to December 2022. Before Allstate John held the position of Service Centre Head for Citi’s near shore technology and operations centre in Belfast.

John has been Chair of the Software Alliance, the industry-led representative voice of the £1.7 billion software industry in Northern Ireland, Chair of the Fellowship Advisory Board at the Centre for Democracy and Peace Building and most recently a member of the Council of Ulster University.  

He currently serves on several boards including the Progressive Building Society and Business in the Community. John was also recently appointed as Chair of the Board of FinTrU. He is past-President of the Northern Ireland Chamber of Commerce.

Colin’s professional career was within the Agri-Food sector where he held many senior Board positions with UK Companies.  

Colin is an experienced Chair and currently holds a portfolio of Non-Executive Chair and Director positions in both the public and private sectors. These include Chair at the AgriFood & BioSciences Institute, Chair at the Public Health Agency, Non-Executive Director at Invest NI where he is Chair of their Business Funding Committee and a member of their Audit & Risk Committee. He is also Chair at Natural World Products, an organics company targeting sustainable climate-focused solutions that will address key structural problems within Northern Ireland to deliver positive outcomes for our environment

Colin has extensive experience of increasing Shareholder value and better governance using a mix of leadership skills, practical experience, risk management as well as acting as a mentor to the board members. He is particularly interested in the development of leadership skills that will lead to more effective and sustainable organisations.

Colin is a Chartered Director and Fellow of the Institute of Directors and is an experienced assessor for the IoD in their Chartered Director programme.

Dominic has 25 years of experience in food retailing and manufacturing both in GB and NI. His previous roles include Head of Food Technology and Head of Innovation at Marks and Spencer in London and at Finnebrogue in Northern Ireland.  

He has a BSc in Food Science, MSc in Agri Food Business Development and is a Fellow of the Institute of food Technology.  

In his current role as Technical and Innovation Director for fast growing food to go manufacturer Around Noon Foods, he is responsible for the food safety and innovation strategies for five factories across NI and GB.  

He has 12 years of experience as an Education Authority appointed Board of Governor for Brefne Integrated Nursery School.

Melanie Dawson began her career in construction in 2004, later choosing to specialise in BIM (building information modelling), digital construction and transformation for the last 10 years.  

Melanie worked for a number of leading construction and consulting firms operating across Norther Ireland, UK and Ireland before choosing to establish her own digital construction consultancy business in August 2020, Origin7 Ltd. Melanie is a Fellow of the Institute of Civil Engineers. Melanie works with the Strategic Investment Board for Northern Ireland as an associate advisor and is a non-executive board member of BuildData Group who provide construction software and consulting.

She has a passion for digital transformation and improving productivity in construction through standardisation and applying a data driven approach.  

She holds no other public appointments.

Marie-Thérèse McGivern began her career as a teacher in further education. In the 90s, she moved to develop policy for the youth service in Northern Ireland and in 1995 joined the Civil Service as a secondee to the Urban Regeneration Initiative, Making Belfast Work. In 1999 she joined the Belfast City Council as Director of Development.

In November 2009 Marie-Thérèse returned to further education and became Principal and Chief Executive of Belfast Metropolitan College, the biggest further education college in Northern Ireland. The College has a staff of 1,000 with 16,000 students. There she led a complete transformation of the College and has led a significant programme of improvement. She retired from the College at the end of March 2020.

Marie-Thérèse has recently been appointed the Chair of Maritime Belfast Trust and was Chair for the Employability and Skills Advisory Board for the £10b Belfast Region City Deal from January 2018 – June 2024. She is also a Non-Executive Director of the Strategic Investment Board for Northern Ireland (remunerated £11,110 per annum) and Northern Ireland Water (remuneration £18,000 per annum) and is also a Fellow of the City and Guilds of London Institute. She has a passion for transformation especially in the power of education and skills development to change lives and communities.

Dawn McLaughlin is a Fellow of Chartered Accountants Ireland having trained and qualified with PwC. In 2005 she established Dawn McLaughlin & Co, a practice located in the North West City Region. For the past 39 years Dawn has specialised in advising start-up companies and small to medium size enterprises throughout the UK and Ireland.

Dawn is a Non-Executive Director with Invest NI and chairs the Audit and Risk Assurance Committee (ARAC).

She is a Trustee on the Board of Governors of St John’s Primary School in Derry having previously served for twelve years as the Department of Education NI representative.

Representing the Londonderry Chamber of Commerce, Dawn sits on the Cross Border Partnership for Employment Services (CBPES).

Past activities include President of the Londonderry Chamber of Commerce, Chair of the Institute of Management - North West Ulster Branch and member of the Regional Board for Northern Ireland. She was also on the Member Services Committee of the Ulster Society of Chartered Accountants Ireland as the North West representative and a member of the Board of the local Leadership Team of Business in the Community.

She was founder member of the Support My Business NI Initiative providing mentoring and workshops on a pro bono basis to Northern Ireland businesses and was awarded the Derry City Council Woman of the Year Award for her contribution to Enterprise.

She does not hold any other public appointments.

Michael McQuillan is Chief Executive at Enterprise NI. Previously he was Director of the Business Institute and the Centre for SME Development at Ulster University and was appointed as a Visiting Professor to the Ulster University Business School in 2010. Prior to that, he was Managing Director of McQuillan Associates - a business growth consultancy supporting the SME sector in Northern Ireland and has been involved in several businesses, throughout his career, notably, as co-founder and Managing Director of The Streat Café Chain and The Streat Franchising Ltd. He has been engaged as a Non-Executive Director with several SME’s. He was a Member of the Tourism Northern Ireland Board from 1 July 2013 to 31 March 2020.

He does not hold any other public appointments.

Having retired from a successful career in business in 2022, Ciaran took up his role as a Non-Executive Director of Invest NI in the same year. He is also a former Chair of the Belfast Health and Social Care Trust.

Ciaran previously served as a non-executive director of Londonderry Port and Harbour Commission, Altnagelvin Hospital Trust and the Western Health and Social Care Trust. He was educated at Queens University Belfast and has a Master’s Degree in Business Leadership from Napier University Edinburgh.  

He holds no other public appointments.

With over 20 years of experience, Patrick has led on over £1bn of real estate investment as both developer, investor and consultant throughout the UK and Europe. He has extensive experience in varied real estate investment structures and a wide network across international capital markets. In his former role as Head of Capital Markets in Central & Eastern Europe for CBRE and since 2013 at Bywater, Patrick has a proven track record of building and managing best in class real estate teams.  

Patrick leads the investment strategy and structuring for the business as well as investor relations. He is also a regular industry commentator on investment issues.

Patrick holds no other public appointments.

Julie-Ann has worked for 28 years in the Northern Ireland corporate banking sector.

Her career at Bank of Ireland spanned a period of strong economic growth as well as one of significant downturn in the economy during the global financial crisis.

She developed expertise in business modelling, commercial due diligence, scenario planning, stress testing and strategic investment analysis.

In 2017, Julie-Ann moved to private industry working with the UK and Ireland’s largest diagnostic company, Randox Laboratories Limited.

During the past 5 years she has further developed her experience across commercial, legal, financial and healthcare disciplines, extending her experience to international markets.

A law graduate from Queen’s University Belfast, Julie-Ann holds a diploma in Accounting & Finance from Ulster University and the Certified Director Designation from the Institute of Banking and University College Dublin.

She holds no other public appointments.

Scott has extensive experience in Business Start Up and high growth Scale Up companies having worked in several executive positions in the Global Telecoms & IT sectors.

Founder of BSO Network Solutions in London during the credit crunch of 2008 specialising in low latency trading infrastructure and helped to develop High Frequency Trading Platforms for a number of banks trading global capital & commodities markets. He continues to have an interest and investments in the burgeoning FinTech sector. Having returned to Northern Ireland after 20 years working overseas, Scott invested in the local telecoms market to develop a UK wide telecoms company which he exited in 2018.

Scott continues to work as an investor, advisor, and mentor to a variety of companies in Northern Ireland. He continues as an executive Director of 2 companies and is also a keen support of the charity Co-Operation Ireland with which he has a long history.

He holds no other public appointments.

• Provides overall leadership to, and ensures the effectiveness of, the Board
• Sets the agenda, character and tone of Board meetings and discussions
• Maintains an effective working relationship with the Chief Executive
• Leads the annual performance evaluation of the Board and its Committees and ensures all Board members make an effective contribution
• Ensures effective communication with the Minister / Department
• Assists the Board in understanding stakeholders’, including Departmental / Ministerial, views
• Represents the views of the Board in public / stakeholder forums as required

• Supports and deputises for the Chair as required
• Assists the Chief Executive in developing strategy
• A mentor for new Board members or Committee Chairs

• Acts as a sounding board for the Chair and a trusted intermediary for other Board members
• Available to stakeholders to discuss any concerns that cannot be resolved through the normal Chair or Chief Executive channels
• Leads Board in an annual performance evaluation of the Chair

• Sets the strategic / corporate plan within the context of PfG and Departmental policy
• Ensures an appropriate operational and governance framework is in place to deliver strategic objectives
• Monitors and scrutinises Invest NI performance against its strategic goals and financial plans
• Brings an objective perspective to Board deliberations and decision-making, drawing on collective broad experience and individual expertise / insights
• Plays a lead role in the functioning of Board Committees
• Monitors and assesses Invest NI culture, using appropriate, effective means to engage with staff and acquire an understanding of stakeholders’ views
• Monitors and assesses the effectiveness of, support and constructively challenge, the Executive Leadership Team

• Leads in the development of Corporate Strategy and annual Operating Plans for consideration and approval of Board
• Fulfils all the responsibilities of being Invest NI’s Accounting Officer
• Provides effective leadership to the Executive Committee (ExCo) in their delivery of strategy
• Responsible for the effective management of all Invest NI operations
• Manages, with ExCo, relationships with key stakeholders, customers and suppliers, and leads the workforce
• Communicates progress against strategy and high-level operational performance to Board and stakeholders
• Embodies Invest NI’s culture, vision and values ‘from the top’

• Acts as the corporate expert, providing advice and support to Chair, Executive, Board, individual Board members and Committees on a broad range of best-practice corporate governance and compliance issues
• Responsible, with the Chair, for setting the agenda for Board and Committee meetings and for high quality and timely information and communication between the Board and its Committees, and between the Board members and Executive Leadership as required
• Works with the Chair to set the agenda, style and tone of Board meetings and discussions promote effective decision-making and constructive debate
• Will intervene if the Chair, Board, Committees or Board members are at risk of acting outside their powers or the spirit of agreed Board governance procedures
• Manages all administration associated with Board meetings

The Audit & Risk Assurance Committee (ARAC) supports the Invest NI Accounting Officer and Board on governance issues and assurance arrangements within the operational and governance framework set by the Board and the Department for the Economy.  

Members  

Dawn McLaughlin – Chair

Julie-Ann O'Hare – Member

Ciaran Mulgrew – Member

Colin Coffey – Member

Michael McQuillan – Member 

The Business Funding Committee (BFC) provides support, advice, and recommendations to the Board by monitoring and reviewing the key funding streams and related programmes.  

Members

Julie-Ann O'Hare – Member

Colin Coffey – Chair

Michael McQuillan – Member

Patrick O'Gorman – Member

Dominic Darby – Member

Scott Ritchie – Member 

The Strategic Resources Committee (SRC) provides support and advice to the Board by monitoring and reviewing the key decision making relating to Financial Management, People Resources, Communications, Digital, Information Technology and Data Management. The SRC will ensure appropriate oversight of all strategic resource planning and delivery.  

Members

Marie-Therese McGivern – Member

Ciaran Mulgrew – Chair

Patrick O'Gorman – Member

Dominic Darby – Member

Melanie Dawson – Member

Scott Ritchie – Member 

The Executive Performance Assessment Committee (EPAC) sets the targets/performance indicators, against which the performance of the CEO is assessed and measured.

Members

John Healy – Chair

Dawn McLaughlin – Member

Colin Coffey – Member