A high-flying career banker will head up the North's new economic development agency.

Mr Leslie Morrison, who is originally from Northern Ireland, has been appointed chief executive designate of the new super agency that will bring the North's existing economic development bodies under one roof for the first time.

Invest Northern Ireland, which will have a staff of more than 600 people and a budget in excess of £200 million sterling (€326 million), will be launched early next year.