Invest NI Board Member Re-appointments - July 2025

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Dominic Darby

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.

He holds no other public appointments.

Melanie Dawson

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

Melanie worked for a number of leading construction and consulting firms operating across Northern 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.   

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.

Dawn McLaughlin

Dawn 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 40 years Dawn has specialised in advising start-up companies and small to medium size enterprises throughout the UK and Ireland.

She is a past President of the Londonderry Chamber of Commerce, Chair of the Institute of Management - North West Ulster Branch and was a 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.

During 2023, Dawn took over the role of Chair of Invest NI’s Audit & Risk Assurance Committee. She represents Invest NI on the Ulster University Magee Taskforce and also the Londonderry Chamber of Commerce on the Cross Border Partnership Employment Services Committee.

Dawn 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 2014 Woman of the Year Award for her contribution to enterprise.

Dawn is the Department of Education NI representative on the Board of Governors

of St John’s Primary School in Derry having previously served as Trustee.      

She holds no other public appointments.

Ciaran Mulgrew

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.

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 is a former Chair of the Belfast 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.

Patrick O’Gorman

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 also serves as a Board Member of Invest NI, the Economic Development Agency for Northern Ireland and is a regular industry commentator on investment issues.

He holds no other public appointments.

Julie-Ann O’Hare

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 in 2008.

In addition to gaining a deep understanding of the NI business sector, she developed expertise in business modelling, commercial due diligence, scenario planning, stress testing and strategic investment analysis. 

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

During the past 8 years she further developed her experience across commercial, legal, financial disciplines, specifically extending her experience to commercialisation of highly innovative products and services to the UK and global health 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 Ritchie

He is the founder of BSO Network Solutions in London during the credit crunch of 2008. Specialising in low latency trading infrastructure and helping 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.