Profiles of Business Speakers
Seamus Connolly MBE, CEO, Fast Engineering Ltd
Fast Engineering Ltd was established in 1981 by its Managing Director, Seamus Connolly MBE, to manufacture FASTANK® - a patented water storage container for use in developing countries. Since then FASTANK® has developed other niche markets including oil and chemical spill cleanup, fire fighting, civil defence, fish-farming, and animal rescue.
An Engineer by profession and a businessman in practice, Seamus understands the customer’s need for quality and service and he strives to provide this in every aspect of his company. He is a creative and innovative entrepreneur who sees the world as his local market place.
Ivan Coulter CEO, Sigmoid
Prior to founding Sigmoid, Ivan set up, developed and managed the drug formulation and diagnostics groups at NTera, a nanotechnology-focused University College Dublin spin-out company.
Ivan has an honours degree and PhD in Pharmacology from University College Dublin, held a Post-Doctoral Fellowship at the Institut Curie, Paris and, awarded a Fulbright Scholarship, completed an MBA at Cornell University, New York. While at Cornell, Ivan consulted to Nautilus Biotech SA, advising on its successful Series A fund raising.
In addition, while completing his PhD, Ivan was awarded a Diploma in Accounting and Finance by the Association of Chartered and Certified Accountants (ACCA). Ivan was appointed to the board of Bord Iascaigh Mhara, headed the Seafood Innovation Council and chairs the Nutramara scientific council.
Rose Mary Stalker, Operations Director, McMullens Architectural Systems
Rose Mary Stalker is a Chartered Engineer and business leader with extensive multi-national experience, having held senior executive positions in North America and Europe with Ford, Boeing and Rolls-Royce Civil Aerospace.
She has received many awards including the European Woman of Achievement in Business and European Automotive Woman of the Year for her work launching the first Ford Focus and transforming Global Recruitment at Ford Motor Company.
Born in Belfast and a Mechanical Engineering graduate of Queen’s University Belfast where she was elected President of the Engineering Society and won the All-Ireland Young Engineer Award for her final year project, Rose Mary has returned to her native Northern Ireland as Group Operations Director for the McMullen Group and has operational responsibility for manufacturing facilities in Moira, Scotland and USA. Rose Mary also serves as a Non-Executive Director of the Northern Ireland Science Park.
Sean McNulty, MD of Innovator
Sean has over 29 years experience in innovation management and implementation. His key role is in mentoring, training and implementing innovation management processes for micro and small businesses.
He worked in the Kilkenny Design Workshop for 5 years, and in 1991 established Dolmen (www.dolmen.ie), a leading-edge new product development consultancy and in 2000, with a wealth of experience and a highly-skilled team, he set up the innovation management and NPD training consultancy Innovator (www.innovator.ie).
Through Innovator, Sean provides knowledge, skills and tools to enable entrepreneurs, SMEs and LEs to research, design, develop and commercialise their business ideas/activities. His company Dolmen has won various National and International Design Awards for developing innovative products.
Terence Brannigan, Executive Chairman, Connected Health Limited
Terence Brannigan is currently the Executive Chairman of Connected Health Limited, a recently formed company with a unique service delivery platform for the operation of Domiciliary Care, TeleCare, TeleHealth and Mental Wellbeing services across the UK & Ireland.
Terence was the original founder of resource™, Northern Ireland’s largest private sector employer. With over 15,000 staff and more than 2,000 customers, resource delivers a range of support services to blue-chip clients across the whole of the UK and Ireland.
Terence is the Chairman of the CBI in Northern Ireland, a visiting Professor attached to the Business Institute, Ulster Business School at the University of Ulster, Chairman of Glentoran Football Club, a board advisor to the Grafton Group and to Forward Emphasis, a Trustee of the Pushkin Trust, a board member of The Prince’s Trust in Northern Ireland and is Chairman of the George Best Foundation.