Dr Gary Burnett has over 30 years’ experience in the IT and software industry, doing business in Europe, India and the US. He has worked for major companies such as IBM and ICL-Fujitsu, as well as a number of SMEs and has spoken at a range of international conferences on various technology-business topics in both the UK and US.
Gary has been involved in new business start-up and business development for the past twenty years and was MD for a number of years of a systems integration company he founded in Ireland. He is currently a Director of Fabrio and helps companies to improve their performance through better management, marketing, sales and operational systems. A Chartered IT Professional, Gary is an approved consultant for the Skills Framework for the Information Age (SFIA) and was been a board member of the ICT trade association in Northern Ireland for many years.
Gary has many years’ experience working with Invest NI, undertaking due diligence work, including Grant for R&D appraisals. He is thus able to provide expert guidance to companies that wish to seek support for innovative projects.
Gary is also an Honorary Lecturer at Queen’s University Belfast. He was also one of a small team that brought Tedx to Belfast and ran a number of successful events.
” Gary´s experience has been invaluable helping us with our business strategy and planning. As a result of working with him, we’ve been able to set clear goals for the business and develop an action plan to make sure we get there.”
Greg Wilson, Managing Director, Seopa
Ian Murphy is a Chartered Accountant and has worked in Invest NI for over 20 years, where he has served as a Director and Managing Director of Clients and Entrepreneurship. He has outstanding experience in Scaling and Growth, with many years’ experience of helping companies increase exports and become more competitive through innovation.
Ian has worked in a range of sectors, but in particular, has managed specialist teams within Invest NI helping digital media, software and global start organizations. He has contributed to a number of boards and committees within the Northern Ireland business community for many years.
He has considerable international experience, including working in the United States. A graduate of Queens’ University Belfast, Ian is a Member of the Chartered Institute of Marketing and the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Ireland. In addition, Ian has completed the Entrepreneurship Development Program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Sloan School of Management.
Ian’s exceptional business experience enables him to help clients with planning for growth, ensure the right funding is in place for ambitious growth plans, and that the leadership skills are in place to meet the demands of a scaling business.
Aidan McGrath is an experienced trainer with a wealth of commercial experience. He has particular strengths in Sales, Sales Management, Business Development, and Entrepreneurship. He co-developed and is currently co-delivering the Sales Leadership Programme for the William J. Clinton Leadership Institute at Queen’s University.
He has over 30 years experience in the ICT sector with broad commercial experience at CEO and Board level. He has substantial experience in C-level contract negotiation (in both public and private sectors). Aidan holds a B.Sc. (Honours) in Biochemistry from the University of Ulster and an MBA from Trinity College Dublin.
His initial career was as a management consultant with Arthur Andersen (now Accenture). He subsequently joined McDonnell Douglas Information Systems Limited (now Capita) where he was awarded the Presidents Club qualification for ‘Outstanding Sales Achievement’ for five successive years and was promoted to General Manager of the N.I. Operation.
In 1993, he founded Beckinridge, a technology training company, and grew it organically from zero to one of the most respected technology training companies in Ireland. He developed and delivered Sales Training courses for technology companies throughout the world including the UK, the Far East, South Africa and Silicon Valley. He developed and delivered the Export Sales Training programme for the Irish Software Association which ran for 8 years and trained sales teams from over 120 Irish Software companies.
“Aidan McGrath’s training is key for what we do…without him, I don’t think we could have reached the sort of growth figures we’ve managed for the lat few years.”
Brendan Monaghan, Chief Executive, Neueda
Ken Frame has more than thirty years of providing business consultancy and managing large-scale projects and brings a wealth of experience to any consultancy assignment. Ken developed his skills whilst working in the Software Development and Management Consultancy practice of IBM (UK) Ltd where he was recognised as a leading practitioner. Here he worked as a Project and Quality Manager for IBM and a number of the UK’s leading companies.
Since returning to Northern Ireland he has continued to work with blue chip organisation and has also made his skills available to public sector organisations and local and international SMEs.
He is currently an advisor for Knowledge Transfer Partnerships in Northern Ireland where he represents the programme sponsors on 30 project boards and provides guidance to recent graduates on becoming accredited managers. He is a member of the Institute of Knowledge Transfer, and assessor for the Chartered Management Institute and an approved consultant for the Skills Framework for the Information Age (SFIA).
Ken’s two passions are guitars and motorbikes, both of which take up less time that he would like. Recent adventures on the bike include off-road riding in South Wales and an overland trip to Marrakech.
Davy Sims has almost 40 years’ experience in broadcasting, presentation, content creation and commissioning in radio, television, and web. Currently, he spends part of the year in Dublin teaching radio production for journalism students and in Slovenia consulting on tourism communications.
Davy works with organisations to improve their communications by developing and executing social media strategies, communications strategies, presentation and training. He believes strongly that proper use of social media and podcasting are an unexplored path for businesses, charities and other organisations to develop and maintain relationships with clients, customers, investors, staff, funders, government organisations, regulators and anyone interested in the organisation.
Broadcasting career
Davy spent almost 25 years in the BBC. From 2001 to 2008, as Head of New Media in BBC NI, he led a team of 25 people producing content for web, mobile and interactive television. He was on several pan-BBC management boards supervising the emergence of social media and developing best practice in audience engagement.
Having started as a presenter on Downtown Radio in 1979, he became a radio producer in BBC Radio Ulster, Radio 1 and Radio 4, and has covered news and current affairs, travel, social action, religion, arts and music.
Post-BBC
After leaving the BBC he worked and consulted with some of Northern Ireland’s leading organisations advising on communications strategy, implementation and training and became director of social enterprises involved in community development and broadcasting.
Public Achievement
For 2 years, he was Head of Social Media for Public Achievement a charity working with young people, and managed a project training young people across Northern Ireland to create positive, sustainable change through journalism and campaigning.
TEDxBelfast
He was part of the team that organised TEDxBelfast in 2011, 2012 and 2013 and initiated TEDxBelfastWomen.
Welcome to Fabrio 