By Cahir O’Doherty

With the extraordinary new developments like the Belfast Titanic Quarter changing the face of Northern Ireland, the need to capitalize on economic, political and cultural regeneration is more important than ever. This is where the Northern Ireland Bureau based in Washington, D.C. comes in.

Almost a decade before he became the Director of the Northern Ireland Bureau, Tim Losty, pictured above, was a co-founder of the Belfast Peace and Reconciliation Partnership. Founded in 1994, the same year the IRA announced their historic ceasefire, the group was instrumental in developing initiatives to foster political change and to refashion attitudes about business ventures in Northern Ireland. Losty’s involvement then was the first chapter in a longstanding commitment he’s made to the development of Northern Ireland.

Although all former directors of the NIB post were recruited from within the Northern Ireland civil service, Losty’s appointment was made after a public search and in many ways he personifies the change of direction that has marked the latest chapter in the Bureau’s development. There’s a lot of good news to herald nowadays. Now the NIB can draw potential investors’ attention to the huge increase in employment and investment in Northern Ireland since the signing of the Good Friday peace agreement in 1998, and the ceasefire itself has proved enduring.

Says Losty: “Before I became Director of the NIB I had a lot of experience helping to set up and manage small companies. We would then bring them to external markets and so I’ve been involved in about 30 trade missions to the United States. As the Director of the NIB I felt there was a strong need to publicize the changes that were happening on the ground in Northern Ireland, and to emphasize all the things we were achieving, and so that’s what we do. What I have always liked about the United States is its culture of promoting success, and its marketing skills. I felt that we needed to come here to study and follow that example too.”

In his role as Director of the NIB Losty continues to identify sectors where he feels Northern Ireland could bring products and services to the U.S., to their mutual benefit. With its population of 1.7 million, Northern Ireland boasts a state-of-the-art technology infrastructure, a highly educated workforce, and multiple attractive business incentives that have supplemented the NIB’s mission.

“There has always been an interest in getting the U.S. to bring projects to Northern Ireland, but we also believe we have businesses that America will benefit from so we’ve brought them over here,” says Losty. “We’ve also encouraged Northern Ireland firms to look at trade partnerships and technology transfer partnerships with U.S. firms, and as a result we’ve had a number of firms come over, set up operations here and employ U.S. citizens. So there’s something in the trade relations for both regions here.”