Invest Northern Ireland

In November 2001 Leslie Morrison, a career banker from Northern Ireland, was named chief executive designate of Invest Northern Ireland, a new agency that would bring Northern Ireland’s existing economic development bodies under one roof for the first time; it was due to launch the following year with more than 600 staff.⁠[1]

The Industrial Development Act (Northern Ireland) 2002 was enacted on February 7, 2002. Section 1 created a body corporate known as Invest Northern Ireland; section 3 provided for the dissolution of the Industrial Development Board (IDB) and the Local Enterprise Development Unit (LEDU) on the appointed day and ended the department’s maintenance of the IDB Executive and the Industrial Research and Technology Unit (IRTU).⁠[2]

The explanatory notes state that the Act set up Invest NI as a single economic development agency and non-departmental public body, transferring to it the powers in the Industrial Development (NI) Order 1982 so that it would broadly carry out the functions of the IDB, LEDU, IRTU, the Business Support Division of the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment (DETI) and the business support activities of the Northern Ireland Tourist Board, and taking over those bodies’ assets and liabilities.⁠[3]

DETI made a commencement order on March 26, 2002, bringing sections 1 to 6 of the Act into operation on April 1, 2002.⁠[4]

Invest NI was launched in April 2002, with its dedicated website going live on April 1; its first chairman was Professor Fabian Monds, its first chief executive Leslie Morrison, and its annual budget £200 million.⁠[5]

In December 2008 Invest NI announced the appointment of Alastair Hamilton as chief executive from April 1, 2009, succeeding Leslie Morrison, who retired on March 31, 2009; the chairman at the time was Stephen Kingon. Hamilton had more than 25 years’ experience in the public and private sectors, most recently with BT, and had served as Economic and Business Advisor in the Office of the First Minister and deputy First Minister (OFMDFM).⁠[6]

On February 28, 2019, Alastair Hamilton, chief executive for 10 years, announced that he would leave later that year.⁠[7]

In October 2019 Invest NI named Kevin Holland as chief executive; he joined on October 21 and was expected to take over from Hamilton in November. Holland had spent 10 years at Unilever and 15 years at Baxter, and from 2016 to 2019 was minister-counsellor for life sciences, health and social care at the British Embassy in Beijing. The chair at the time was Rose Mary Stalker.⁠[8]

At the end of November 2021, Kevin Holland announced in a statement that he would stand down as chief executive after two years in the role to focus on a new area.⁠[9]

On December 22, 2021, Invest NI appointed Mel Chittock, its executive director for finance and operations, as interim chief executive with immediate effect; he had worked at Invest NI for more than 10 years and earlier in corporate finance at the Industrial Development Board.⁠[10]

In January 2022 the then Economy Minister Gordon Lyons commissioned an independent review of Invest NI by a panel chaired by Sir Michael Lyons with Dame Rotha Johnston and Maureen O’Reilly, to assess its efficiency and effectiveness and its capacity to deliver the “10X Economic Vision.”⁠[11][12]

The review was published on January 11, 2023. It concluded that Northern Ireland needs an economic development agency and that Invest NI is best placed to continue that role, but that it requires substantial reform and repurposing; it found limited impact on productivity and considerable room for improvement in leadership, structure, operations, financial control and public accountability, and said the Department for the Economy should provide stronger oversight and clearer strategic and policy direction, while Invest NI should be a better partner, particularly at sub-regional level.⁠[11]

On March 31, 2023, Mike Brennan, Permanent Secretary of the Department for the Economy, accepted in principle all of the review’s recommendations across 17 broad areas, with an action plan expected in summer 2023.⁠[12]

On October 23, 2023, Invest NI announced the appointment of Kieran Donoghue as chief executive; Donoghue was then a member of IDA Ireland’s executive leadership team and its global head of strategy, public policy and international financial services, and had been posted in Washington, D.C.⁠[13][14]

Donoghue succeeded Mel Chittock on January 29, 2024, after 21 years at IDA Ireland.⁠[15]

John Healy OBE became chair of the Invest NI board on March 1, 2024, for a three-year term, an appointment welcomed by Economy Minister Conor Murphy; Colm McKenna had served as interim chair for the preceding year.⁠[16]

In November 2024 Kieran Donoghue and John Healy launched “Our Future in Focus,” the 2024–2027 business strategy and Invest NI’s first three-year business strategy in a decade; the agency moved from a four-region to a five-region operating model, increased regional-based staff by 40% and introduced a regional property programme offering strategic sites, business parks and advance office buildings.⁠[17]

The strategy sets six priorities; its three-year targets include supporting 5,000 productive investments, £1.75bn of investment and 10,000 jobs, winning at least 60 new-to-Northern Ireland FDI projects, raising client-portfolio R&D spending to £750m and external sales to £25.75bn, and locating 65% of investments outside the Belfast Metropolitan Area by 2026/27. The five operating regions are Belfast City, North & North West, Eastern, Southern and Western.⁠[18]

On June 24, 2025, Invest NI published its 2024/25 results: £631m of total investment supported (against a £525m target), £88m of assistance offered to 2,062 growth projects across 1,334 businesses, £245m committed by businesses to R&D and innovation, 3,020 new jobs created with its financial support, 19 new inward investors and reinvestment by 80 existing inward investors.⁠[19]

In that year 93% of supported investments came from locally owned companies, and 59% were located outside the Belfast Metropolitan Area (against a 60% target).⁠[19]

Invest NI’s Annual Report and Accounts 2024–25 was laid before the Northern Ireland Assembly by the Department for the Economy on October 16, 2025; the agency had an average of 554 permanently employed UK-based staff in the year (529 the year before) and total spending of £121.6m.⁠[20]

On June 30, 2026, Invest NI published its 2025/26 results: £764m of investment supported, the highest since 2014/15 and 19% more than the year before; £126m of assistance offered across 2,221 projects; 4,301 new jobs, up 45%, of which 85% pay above the Northern Ireland private sector median; 20 new first-time foreign investments; and 48 of 56 activity targets met.⁠[21]

Over the first two years of the business strategy, cumulative results reached £1.4bn of investment, 4,293 projects and 7,268 potential jobs.⁠[21]

Invest NI agreed a 10-year lease on about 3,300 sq ft at Ebrington Plaza in Derry, aiming to open in early 2027 and replacing its Timber Quay base, used since 2006; Aeidin McCarter was appointed head of regional business for the North West. In the previous year Invest NI supported 263 projects in the North West, expected to bring £80m of investment and more than 400 jobs.⁠[22]

Invest NI describes its role as the regional business development agency as growing the local economy, helping new and existing businesses compete internationally and attracting new investment to Northern Ireland.⁠[23]

The executive committee listed on its website also includes Chief Commercial Officer Anne Beggs, Chief Operating Officer Kathryn Hill, Chief Development Officer Alison Currie, Executive Director of People and Culture Paula Logue and Executive Director of Marketing & Communications Peter Harbinson.⁠[24]

Besides the chair, the board has 12 members, including Dawn McLaughlin, who chairs the Audit and Risk Assurance Committee, and Máirtín Ó Muilleoir, a former Northern Ireland Finance Minister; the deputy chair position is currently unfilled.⁠[25]

Invest NI’s headquarters is at Bedford Square, Bedford Street, Belfast; its website says its more than 500 staff work across regional offices in Ballymena, Belfast, Craigavon, Londonderry, Newry and Omagh.⁠[26]

Its international teams cover Europe, the Americas, India/Middle East/Africa and Asia Pacific, with listed locations in Boston, New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Toronto, Mexico City, London, Manchester, Dublin, Brussels, Madrid, Düsseldorf, Paris, Milan, Copenhagen, Dubai, Riyadh, Johannesburg, Mumbai, Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Tokyo, Singapore and Sydney.⁠[27]

Invest NI launched its Proof of Concept programme in December 2003 with a £5m project fund over three years to increase the number of high-tech spinouts from university research; in September 2004 the programme awarded £1m to nine projects at Queen’s University BelfastQueen's University BelfastQueen’s University Belfast is a research university in Belfast, Northern Ireland. It was founded in 1845 as Queen’s College Belfast, became an independent university in 1908 and is a member of the Russell Group.Open the full entry and the University of Ulster, including a Queen’s project on biosensor technology for rapid analysis of toxic food contaminants.⁠[28]

In September 2004 Queen’s University Belfast opened the £4.3m Medical Polymers Research Institute (MPRI) in its Ashby building, funded by the EU Programme for Peace and Reconciliation (PEACE II) as administered by Invest NI; researchers from the Schools of Chemical and Mechanical Engineering and the School of Pharmacy’s McClay Research Centre work there on new materials for medical devices.⁠[29]

Invest Northern Ireland: Official website: https://www.investni.com/ (opens in a new window).⁠[30]

LinkedInLinkedInLinkedIn is a social networking platform for professionals. It was founded in 2002 by Reid Hoffman and others, launched in 2003, and listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 2011; after Microsoft acquired it for approximately $26.2 billion in 2016, it became a wholly owned Microsoft subsidiary. Its revenue comes from membership subscriptions, advertising, and recruitment solutions.Open the full entry: Public profile: https://www.linkedin.com/company/invest-northern-ireland/ (opens in a new window).⁠[30]

YouTubeYouTubeYouTube is Google’s video-sharing and creator platform, founded in 2005 by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim and acquired by Google in 2006. Built around video uploading, viewing, and creator earnings, the platform has developed Shorts, YouTube Music, Premium, YouTube TV, and products for children, and is headquartered in San Bruno, California, United States.Open the full entry: Public channel: https://www.youtube.com/investni (opens in a new window).⁠[30]