Our Chair

Robert Hill, Chair of the Northern Ireland Space Leadership Council and the Northern Ireland Space Special Interest Group (NISSIG)

Robert Hill is the Chair of the Northern Ireland Space Leadership Council and the Northern Ireland Space Special Interest Group (NISSIG) hosted by ADS.

He has spearheaded the campaign to bring space sector opportunities to the region and authored and coordinated the development of the Northern Ireland Space Strategy, endorsed by then First Minister Arlene Foster MLA and Economy Minister Simon Hamilton at the inauguration of the Thales Electric Propulsion and Integration Test Centre in Belfast.

Robert holds the position of NI Space Cluster Manager, supported by the UK Space Agency. He is Space Advisor to FD Technologies plc, leading on the Kx for Space program and Trade Advisory Services Space lead for InvestNI, the Regional Business Development Agency, helping companies to navigate the space ecosystem.

Robert is proud to be an Ambassador for Visit Belfast and helped to bring the UK Space Conference to Northern Ireland for the first time in November 2023.

Industry members

Mary McKenna
Mary McKennaMatrix Deputy Chair, Angel Investor
Mary McKenna is a well networked Northern Irish technology entrepreneur and angel investor. After a long corporate career as a Director of Finance in London and a spell in Silicon Valley she co-founded online learning company Learning Pool in 2006 and successfully exited from the business in 2014 so that she could return to working with earlier stage startups and scaleups.
Tom Gray
Tom GrayCTO, Kainos
Tom is a 30-year tech veteran and is the driving force behind many of Kainos’ PLC most imaginative and successful customer and staff initiatives, including HealthHackEU, Kainos AICamp and Code4Derry.
Stephanie Maher
Stephanie MaherDirector at Eagry Consulting
Stephanie has over 25 years of experience growing and leading software engineering teams to build high-quality, innovative software products. She has extensive experience in financial services having previously held roles with First Derivatives, Lloyds Banking Group and Visa. She is currently a Director at Eagry Consulting.
Mark Huddleston
Mark HuddlestonManaging Director of jheSOLUTIONS and King & Fowler UK
Mark Huddleston is Managing Director of jheSOLUTIONS and King & Fowler UK since 2014. Having graduated with a BEng (Hons) in Manufacturing from Ulster University in 1998 he has worked in a range of start-up, SME and multi-national businesses within the Advanced Manufacturing & Engineering sector.
Dr. Rachel Gawley
Dr. Rachel GawleyChief Innovation Officer, Whitespace
Rachel is a research leader experienced in building and nurturing collaborative teams to create ethical and impactful solutions to complex problems. Her background is in software engineering and she learned her craft in server-side, web, and native smartphone applications before settling into emerging technologies.
Dr. Michael Shaw
Dr. Michael ShawManaging Director of RPS Ireland Ltd
Dr Michael Shaw is Managing Director of RPS Ireland Ltd, a business segment within the RPS Group plc. Michael is a Fellow of the Institution of Civil Engineers, a Member of Engineers Ireland, a Member of the Chartered Institution of Water and Environmental Management, and a Member of the Institute of Directors.
Rebecca Walsh
Rebecca WalshDesign Director, Big Motive
Rebecca has a background in Aerospace Engineering with over 10 years’ experience in innovation, human centred design and service design. Rebecca is Design Director at Big Motive. She focuses on the delivery of high quality service and experience design projects for a range of clients in both the public and private sector.
Professor Richard Kennedy
Professor Richard KennedyMedical Director and Global VP of Biomarker Development, Almac Diagnostic Services
Richard Kennedy Is the Medical Director and Global VP of Biomarker Development at Almac Diagnostic Services and the McClay Professor in Medical Oncology at the Centre for Cancer Research and Cell Biology, Queen’s University of Belfast.
Patricia O’Hagan
Patricia O’HaganCo-Founder, Core Systems
Patricia O’Hagan is a tech entrepreneur and co-founder of Core Systems, a world leader in prisoner self-service technology. Patricia comes from an engineering and product development background and has over 20 years of Corrections Technology experience. Patricia was awarded an MBE in the Queen’s 2013 Royal New Year Honours list for services to the Northern Ireland Economy.

Ex officio members

Professor Liam Maguire
Professor Liam MaguirePro-Vice-Chancellor (Research),Ulster University
Liam obtained MEng and PhD degrees in Electrical and Electronic Engineering from the Queen’s University, Belfast. He joined Ulster University as a lecturer in 1994 and became a Professor of Computational Intelligence in 2007. Liam has been Executive Dean of the Faculty of Computing, Engineering and the Built Environment since 2016. Previously he held a number of senior positions at Ulster such as Head of School and Director of the Intelligent Systems Research Centre.
Tim Brundle
Tim BrundleDirector of Research & Innovation, Ulster University
Tim Brundle is Director of Research & Impact at Ulster University. Timothy directs Ulster’s research strategy, governance and administration, and guides its commercial output through knowledge transfer and intellectual property commercialisation. He also holds the position of CEO of Innovation Ulster Ltd, Ulster University’s award-winning venturing and investment company.
Steve Orr
Steve OrrCEO, Catalyst Inc
Steve Orr is Chief Executive Officer of Catalyst Inc and serves on the Board of Directors. Before being named CEO in 2018, Steve was Director and Co-founder of Connect, Catalyst Inc’s not-for-profit network of experienced entrepreneurs, business professionals and top research talent dedicated to the creation and scaling of innovation companies in Northern Ireland.
Professor Paul Maropoulos
Professor Paul MaropoulosDirector of the Advanced Manufacturing and Innovation Centre at Queen's University
Paul Maropoulos is a professor at School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Queen’s University Belfast. His main research focus in on Smart and Metrology Enabled Manufacturing, combining and linking the process and product verification from the cyber to the physical domains. He is a Fellow of the International Academy of Production Engineering (CIRP)
Leo Murphy
Leo MurphyPrincipal & Chief Executive, North West Regional College
Leo Murphy is Principal and Chief Executive at North West Regional College, a leading College in Northern Ireland which provides further and higher education and training to around 20,000 learners each year at its main campus locations in Derry-Londonderry, Limavady and Strabane.
Brian McCaul
Brian McCaulCEO QUBIS Ltd
Brian is the CEO of QUBIS, the commercialisation arm of Queen’s University which, since 1984, has a long and strong track–record in creating new technology start–ups, and otherwise helping commercialise leading–edge technology from the Queen’s research base.
Michael Bower
Michael BowerAssistant Director, The Open University in Ireland
Michael is Assistant Director for Student Success and External Engagement for the OU in Ireland and is responsible for ensuring that students achieve their career and educational goals, as well as that the OU is addressing economic and societal needs across Ireland.
William Revels
William RevelsManaging Director of Digital Catapult Northern Ireland
A highly regarded technology leader with 25 years’ experience in the fields of software, telecommunications and managed services, William founded both the BT Ireland Innovation centre and the PwC Advanced Research and Engineering centre.

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