Innovation in North Powering Commerce

THE culture of innovation and entrepreneurship among Northern Ireland’s workforce is powering international commerce and growing the north’s reputation as a premier location for trade and investment, according to one local business leader.

MBA Association of Ireland Northern Chapter chairman Gareth Quinn was speaking after meeting with Jon Robson, CEO of NYSE Technologies and Irish-born Margaret Molloy, CMO of global strategic branding firm Siegel & Gale at the New York Stock Exchange.

As part of the build up towards the inaugural Digital DNA summit in Belfast next month, the pair saw how innovative products developed at NYSE Euronext’s Centre of Excellence here operate on the trading floor in New York.

NYSE Euronext’s Belfast office provides a range of support to trading floors in Asia, New York, London and Paris.

Following the Wall Street visit, Gareth Quinn said: “It was inspiring to see at first hand the role that the NYSE Technologies in Belfast plays in supporting the global financial markets. Local success stories such as that of Wombat and how they started as a small startup on the Dublin Road to being bought for $200 million to provide the technology platform to run global financial markets carries major weight internationally.

“The encouraging message we got from both Jon Robson and Margaret Molloy was that Northern Ireland’s reputation as a location in which to do business is extremely strong and they would encourage other major companies to set up in the region,” Mr Quinn said.

“While technology constantly transforms the business environment, the class of business talent and IT graduates here remains a strategic advantage. We’re looking forward to welcoming Jon Robson to Northern Ireland next month when he can see for himself, through the Digital DNA Summit, the high-quality of digital and technology enterprises emerging within the local ecosystem.”

NYSE Technologies CEO Jon Robson is headline speaker and he will be joined by director of small medium business sales for Google, Dave Geraghty; director of global sales services for Facebook, Gail Power; and head of engineer-ing in Deloitte Digital UK, Mike Robinson.

Brian Dolaghan, director of technology and services at Invest NI, said: “The digital sector is an important and growing sector in Northern Ireland and one that has great potential to create high quality jobs. Invest NI is actively supporting the development of this sector and we are delighted to sponsor Digital DNA. Events like this help profile Northern Ireland’s skills to a captive audience as well as highlighting the global opportunities open to local companies.”

Source: irishnews.com