NEWS

April 2025

Great to meet up with the team from the City of Mentor, Ohio as we visited Ireland, Northern Ireland, Wales and England. Companies were very interested to hear about the offer from the City of Mentor as there is a growing awareness in Ireland and the UK that doing business in the US is greatly helped by having a footprint there. Ohio is of particular interest to companies in the Medtech and Life Sciences sectors with the presence of the Cleveland Clinic, to Aerospace and Space companies who are interested in hearing about the NASA facilities in Ohio (and rumours that NASA HQ might move from Washington to Ohio) and there are huge opportunities too for Advanced Engineering and Manufacturing companies.

March 2025

March was a varied month with a visit to Dublin where I got to catch up with Carina O’Brien who had previously been the Vice-Consul in Manchester. She has now been promoted and is the Private Secretary to the Minister of State for International Development and Diaspora – Congratulations Carina! Also got to meet up with former colleagues at the British Embassy in Dublin. It’s great to see the huge and growing connections between Ireland and the UK, particularly the North West. My thanks to Anneke Taylor for organising the visit. At home, I was delighted to get the chance to follow up on an invitation to deliver a guest lecture to a group of third year students of international business at Liverpool John Moore’s University and great to have such an enthusiastic audience! I also appreciated an invitation to the very impressive FinTech North conference in Liverpool, a growing and important sector across the region. The day ended with a wonderful roof-top drinks event where we caught the sunset on the iconic waterfront. Finally, delighted to attend an Explore Export event run by the Government of Wales in Llandudno - brilliant event and so much help available (including finacially!) for Welsh exporters. 

February 2025

It was great to catch up with a number of Manchester contacts including Bev Craig, leader of Manchester City Council at the MIDAS event in early February. Also good to see the number of Irish companies setting up in the region. A snowy trip to Berlin for the European Film Market at the Berlinale was a super chance to find out what is going on in other countries and thanks again to Screen Ireland and the Embassy of Ireland in Berlin for a great event on the Sunday night! Impressed with the new Tegel airport (though the old Schönefeld site might have been easier for public transport).

January 2025

January was the month for Women and Tech and some great events. Really enjoyed Nollaig na mBan organised by the Irish Consulate in Manchester and the Women of Irish Heritage and great to catch up with the fantastic and dynamic women in the network. Baltic Ventures is a great addition to the Liverpool Tech Scene and their demo day in January allowed some interesting companies to show what they have been doing with the support of this impressive accelerator. Followed by the AI Superconnectors event at the Spine, where it was great to meet up with Alexander Montgomerie-Corcoran of Heronic Technologies back in the UK again. They are on an impressive upward trajectory! The month was closed off with the Women Leading in Business event at the Manchester Alliance Business School and it was a privilege to spend time with some truly exceptional women.

December 2024

Japan beckoned again in December and it was an honour to have been asked by Innovate UK, the UK's Innovation agency, to accompany the Global Business Innovation Programme (GBIP) semiconductor group to Japan. Brilliant to be back at the British Embassy in Tokyo and to get back to Semicon Japan again. Very grateful to Richard Lyle, Vice President of Intralink and President of the British Chamber of Commerce in Japan for coming to talk to the Innovate UK GBIP group informally at Semicon Japan. Whilst at the show, I had the pleasure of bumping in to Fumio Sakiya whom I knew many years ago after he started Rorze Corporation in Fukuyama - the company has now grown to 4,000 employees globally. It was great to meet with both Sakiya Shatcho and my old boss Fujii Shatcho on my return to Fukuyama later in the trip to celebrate 40 years of both Rorze Corporation and Adtec Plasma Technology Co. Ltd.  Following on from the wonderful mission to Tokyo, I also met with the Hydrogen lead in Fukushima and had other meetings in Okayama, Fukuyama and Osaka before making it home just in time for Christmas. There are big opportunities for collaboration with Japan ... and funding too! Looking forward to working further on these exciting opportunities next year.

November 2024

November had an initial focus on Ireland but soon encompassed Germany, London, a big part of the globe (thanks CPTPP!) and of course Liverpool for a talk at Liverpool Science Park and then the brilliant first AI summit there. So sorry to say goodbye to Carina O'Brien who was the first Vice Consul at the Irish Consulate in Manchester and made a huge contribution during her time there. Continuing on with the Irish theme, delighted to be asked to present at Halton Chamber's International Trade Forum and give the audience reasons to be cheerful when looking at the Irish market. Germany beckoned with a trip to Medica, an absolute monster of a show! Huge thanks to my good friend Mary McGovern of Adtec Healthcare Ltd for allowing me to use their stand for meetings. Medica was followed by a dash to London for Going Global and November ended on a high with an invitation to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in London to celebrate the UK's accession to CPTPP where I was delighted to meet the new Ambassador to Japan, the Free Trade Agreement Utilisation team and HM Commisioner for Asia Pacific. There are some great opportunities opening up with this Free Trade Agreement so looking forward to helping forward thinking companies and organisations make the most of them!

October 2024

In October, I was honoured and delighted to be asked to provide a training session for Innovate UK, the UK's Innovation agency in Birmingham to prepare a group of innovative semiconductor companies on a Global Business Innovation Programme to visit Japan. I also attended one of their Medtech sessions in Liverpool. Continuing on with the Medtech theme, it was great to attend Medilink Midlands' excellent event in Coventry. On the innovation theme, attended a really useful event at Liverpool University where I was delighted to bump in to Prof. Ivona Mitrovic and meet Dr Stefania Soldini for a really interesting conversation on Space. A trip to Ireland rounded up the month where I was delighted to catch up with Minister Dara Calleary, Minister of State for Trade Promotion, Digital and Company Regulation. 

September 2024

September had a definite tech theme with a trip to Belfast to do a training session at the E-futures conference at Queen's University, Belfast and a session at Slush'd Liverpool where I got to meet the great Sir Robin Saxby, one of my heroes and a giant in the world of semiconductors. 

August 2024

The Olympics in Paris were a great opportunity to meet up with contacts and also get to see how to create an excellent event!

July 2024

As always, a great pleasure and very useful to keep connections with SciTech Daresbury and STFC located in Halton. Brilliant to have Noreen Conway over from Platform 94 in Ireland to look further at connections between the two regions and foster futher relationships going forward. 

June 2024

Great to be invited to attend the Halton Business Awards run by Halton Chamber of Commerce; a great evening with more than 500 guests. Also pleased to present the Lord Mayor of Liverpool with tokens from the City of Mentor, Ohio to thank him for his wonderful tour of the Town Hall.

May 2024

Thrilled to be invited to the semiconductor conference in Athens – excited for an inspiring experience at the forefront of technology and innovation.