Pen pictures
Colin Coffey
Colin lives in Bangor. He is a Chartered Director and Fellow of the Institute of Directors (IoD) with extensive experience in Corporate Governance.
Colin is currently non-Executive Chair of the Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute, a non-Departmental Public Body (remunerated at £26,510 per annum), and Flint Studios, a software development company.
Colin has held a number of senior management posts within the Northern Ireland food pindustry including chief executive of United Feeds and manufacturing director at Pritchitt Foods.
Colin acts as a professional assessor for the IoD for candidates applying for the Chartered Director professional qualification.
He also is an entrepreneur-in-residence for Catalyst providing mentoring and support to high potential start-ups.
Kieran Kennedy
Kieran has over 40 years’ experience working in the textile manufacturing and social enterprise sectors. He is managing director of O’Neills Irish International Sports Company Limited since 1988. Kieran is also chairman of Strabane Training Services and chairman of Strabane BID (Business Improvement District0, both voluntary positions. In 2019 Kieran was awarded the Global Ireland Award for service to Irish enterprise by the Consulate General in Boston.
He does not hold any other public appointments.
Kevin Kingston
Kevin has been chief executive of Danske Bank since 2015, having previously been deputy chief executive and managing director of corporate and business banking. Danske Bank is Northern Ireland’s biggest bank, serving personal, business and corporate customers. Kevin is a former president of the NI Chamber of Commerce and Industry and a former chairman of the Chartered Accountants Ulster Society. He is currently a board member of Business in the Community and the Titanic Foundation.
He does not hold any other public appointments.
Marie-Therese McGivern
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 NI 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 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 Titanic Foundation Ltd and is the chair for the Employability and Skills Advisory Board for the £10bn Belfast Region City Deal. 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), she 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.
Michael McQuillan
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.