US business leaders to run rule over NI tech companies

BELFAST BRIEFING:IF EVER there was a time to fly the flag for Northern Ireland's ailing economy then this is the day to do it. But only if it is a US flag that is being hoisted, preferably above the likes of Belfast City Hall, the University of Ulster and Queen's University.

This week they will play host to an important first visit by an influential group of hard-hitting Irish-American and American business leaders who are in Belfast to discover the technology stars of the future. Over the next two days the Irish Technology Leadership Group (ITLG) will stage a “Silicon Valley comes to Ireland” event in and around Belfast in a bid to help emerging technology firms and existing players raise their game.

Today, the ITLG will meet 12 promising technology firms – four from the North and eight from the South – to give them a glimpse of what it takes to become a global success.

John Gilmore, one of the Silicon Valley chief executives who has travelled to Belfast for the ITLG event, which is co-sponsored by The Irish Times, says it will be a “great opportunity for small and start-up companies to get exposure on the international stage”.

Gilmore, who is chief executive of Sling Media, is just one of 13 Silicon Valley disciples who are taking time out from their own business interests to invest in the future of Irish technology firms.

Last week, during her visit to Belfast, US secretary of state Hillary Clinton highlighted the group’s commitment to promoting “greater trade and co-operation” between the US and Northern Ireland.

This is a recurring theme in the North this month and one that is critically important to the local economy. Anyone in any doubt about the key role the US has played, and continues to play, in Northern Ireland’s prosperity need look no further than the £9.6 million investment by the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) yesterday. The NYSE intends to expand an existing operation in Belfast in a move which it is hoped will lead to the creation of 400 jobs.

It follows fast on the back of a new expansion by US web-based healthcare communications group, NaviNet, which plans to create 60 jobs in a new £4.4 million investment in Belfast.

This is exactly the type of high-end investment the new US:NI Working Group, launched by Hillary Clinton in Belfast last week, hopes to build on. The group of 40 key businessmen and women from the US and Northern Ireland will be chaired by the US special economic envoy Declan Kelly and chief executive of Invest NI Alastair Hamilton.

Local business leaders are confident the group will prove more than another talking shop but that it can produce results.

According to Dr Allen McClay, the founder of two international pharmaceutical companies – Galen and, more recently, Almac – the reason the NI:US group differs from previous efforts is because it will “work both ways”.

Almac is investing $120 million in its new North American headquarters in Pennsylvania, where it expects employment to reach 1,000. Dr McClay says the contribution the North and Northern Ireland firms can make to growing the local economy and the US economy should not be under-estimated.

“This new working group is a partnership. It should never be considered a one-way street. We have as much to contribute to this process as the US has. There are a lot of American companies, particularly in the healthcare and biotech sector who are going to be looking to Europe at this time and the North of Ireland is ideally placed for those companies. We have product here in the North of Ireland, purely from the healthcare sector, which we haven’t sold yet,” Dr McClay said.

It is a view which resonates with Mrs Clinton’s personal belief that the new working group will be “mutually beneficial and will contribute to the recovery of the global economy”.

The US secretary of state said the “vitality and dynamism of the business sector in Northern Ireland represents a great opportunity”.

Many in the North from political leaders to investment bodies will hope that corporate America was listening closely to their secretary of state, none more so than Invest NI’s Alastair Hamilton.

He has had a few very uncomfortable weeks as head of the regional economic development agency in the North, which was heavily slammed in a recent independent review for failing to deliver on its goals. Hamilton believes the new US:NI group will “open doors for us into the boardrooms of America”.

“It is not just about attracting foreign direct investment from the US, although new opportunities are a strong focus for us. But it is also about developing trading opportunities for Northern Ireland companies in the US.”