Jenny Irvine

Jenny currently is CEO for two community based companies ARC and ITEC. Jenny line manages in excess of 40 staff over a broad range of initiatives encouraging a strong element of user participation in the planning, development and delivery of service.

Jenny manages ITEC’s property base of over 55,000 SQ Ft hosting twenty five businesses employing over 200 people. ITEC profits are directly reinvested into social development through the ARC Healthy Living Centre.

Jenny served as a lay person on the Western Local Commissioning Group, is currently a social partner on SWARD and recently completing an MSc in Executive Leadership through the University of Ulster.

Website: The ARC Healthy Living Centre

Seamus Mc Aleavey

Seamus is the Chief Executive of the Northern Ireland Council for Voluntary Action (NICVA), the umbrella body for voluntary and community organisations in Northern Ireland which has over 1,000 member organisations. 

He is a member of the Economic Development Forum, an advisory body to the Northern Ireland Government on the economy.  He is also a member of the Cross Sector Advisory Forum on the Economy established by the First and deputy First ministers.   He is currently a member of the Carnegie Inquiry into Civil Society in the UK and Ireland.  He is a former member of the Taskforce on Active Citizenship established by the Taoiseach which reported in 2007 as well as being a former Board member of the Combat Poverty Agency in Dublin.

Seamus is married with one daughter and lives in Newry, Co Down.

Website: NICVA

Patricia Thompson

Patricia Thompson is a Metcalf Foundation Innovation Fellow at Massey College (University of Toronto.)  Her research explores the connections between vocational, organizational and civic renewal.  She is also a partner to leaders responsible for mature nonprofit organizations facing adaptive challenges.  Her nine-year old consulting practice specializes in strategy, governance and workplace learning.  Pat began her career on Parliament Hill in 1981 where she worked first for her hometown MP and later for two federal cabinet ministers.  From 1988 – 2000, she was an executive with YMCA Canada and the YMCA of Greater Vancouver responsible for strategic communications, external relations and programs related to employment counseling, language instruction, youth leadership, and international development.

Website: Patricia Thompson

Brendan Clarke

Brendan has been involved in Learning & Development for his entire professional career.   Starting as a youth worker  in the early 80s which provided him with a foundation in understanding the complexities of disadvantage that many groups & communities experience due to structural circumstances. 

Brendan has a degree in Social science and community relations, is a trained teacher and has a Masters in Crime and Social Justice.   During this time Brendan worked for a training organization based in Toxteth seeking to address learning & development issues following the uprisings that occurred in Toxteth.  Brendan was head of Professional Development in Preston College for 5 years, focusing on adult basic skills and teacher professional development. 

Following this, Brendan joined one of the three biggest FE colleges in the UK in the Wirral as Head of Student Services.  Brendan then moved into working for BTEC and  Edexcel working as the manager responsible for Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland, Wales and the East Midlands of England. In this role Brendan was involved in the strategic positioning of vocational qualifications for students and adults across the UK. 

More latterly, Brendan has been able to bring this body of experience and knowledge to bear as the new Chief Executive Officer of the Open College Network NI.  In this role Brendan comments   ‘I am able to focus on the work that is important to me- seeking to link learning and opportunity for all, seeking to overcome the huge barriers of disadvantage and inequality and challenging established practices and structures that limit individuals and communities.  At OCN NI we play a major part in making learning accessible to all, we are proud of that, I am proud that I am part of that.’

Website: Open College Network NI

Sandy Houston

Sandy Houston is the President of the Metcalf Foundation.  Over the last ten years, Houston has led the development of Metcalf into an innovative and leading Toronto-based private foundation deeply engaged in helping Canadians imagine and build a just, healthy and creative society. The Foundation addresses the issues of poverty reduction, ecological integrity and creative vitality through the development of new thinking and practice, the advancement of dynamic organizations and the strengthening of individuals to conceptualise and lead change.

Mr Houston began his career practicing law at Osler Hoskin and Harcourt.  He went on to become a founding partner of Stitt Feld Handy Houston, Canada's first law firm to focus predominately on alternative dispute resolution.  There he focused on mediation work, and served as a consultant to government, agency and corporate clients.

Mr Houston is engaged in a variety of issues across the sector, and has been instrumental in the establishment of a number of Canadian not-for-profits.  Currently he is the founding chair of the Friends of the Greenbelt Foundation, an arms-length, public foundation created by the government of Ontario to support the environmental and agricultural integrity of province’s new Greenbelt.  He also serves as a director or advisor to a number of charitable organisations, including both the national and provincial umbrella organisations for the not for profit sector.

Website: Metcalf Foundation

Oona Chatterjee

Oona Chatterjee is co-founder and co-director of Make the Road By Walking, a community-run organisation in Bushwick, Brooklyn, dedicated to empowering residents to advocate for their rights and improve conditions in their neighbourhoods. Initially formed in 1997, Make the Road engages and prepares members of poor and immigrant communities to work together to combat systemic economic and political marginalisation.

Since then, Make the Road New York has become a powerful force of and for low-income immigrants across New York City. In less than a decade, the organisation has grown to 2300 members in Bushwick, Queens and Staten Island. To alleviate poverty and challenge discrimination, Make the Road members have won or redirected many millions of dollars and changed public policy at the city and state levels.

Website: Make the Road

Majella McCloskey

Majella is Director of CO3, the leadership organisation for Northern Ireland’s third sector and over 200 charity chief executives and directors hold membership of CO3. Working closely with CO3 members, Majella has responsibility to CO3’s Board for services and events and for setting the policy and direction of the organisation. In recent years CO3 has trebled in turnover and membership has doubled. Majella has established CO3’s leadership research and ‘Good Governance’ project. With a background in the third sector, Majella has a special interest in political influencing, having researched this, campaigned for many years and undertaken specialist training in Washington DC and NI.

Website: CO3

Panelists

Angela McGowan
Chief Economist, Northern Bank

Angela joined Northern Bank in June 2008 from the Economic Research Institute of Northern Ireland (ERINI) where she was Senior Economist. She has 14 years’ experience in the economics field, having previously worked in the former Northern Ireland Economic Council and the Department of Economics at Queen’s University.

Angela has produced a significant number of research papers in the past - in particular she has worked on local economic policy projects such as ‘The Cost of Doing Business in NI’, ‘Public Expenditure on Children’, ‘Industrial De-rating’ and ‘The Welfare Trap’.  She has worked on projects for the European Commission and co-authored a book entitled “Competitiveness and Environmental Regulation”.

Her role in the bank is to provide analysis and commentary on Northern Irish, UK and global economic trends, in particular those elements of economic performance which impact the Bank's personal and business portfolios.  Angela is a frequent and valued contributor to local business publications as well as the daily newspapers. Angela also sits on the Invest NI economist forum.