Professor Richard Barnett (Chair)
Vice Chancellor, University of Ulster

Professor Barnett was appointed Vice Chancellor of the University in April 2006, having been Acting Vice Chancellor from November 2004.

He joined the University in September 1990 on his appointment in Public Finance and Management and has held appointments as Head of the School of Public Policy, Economics and Law, Dean of the Faculty of Business and Management, and Pro Vice Chancellor (Teaching and Learning).

Prior to joining the University, Professor Barnett held academic appointments at the Universities of Salford and York and at Queen’s University, Ontario. He also held the Vivienne Stewart Visiting Fellowship at the University of Cambridge and has been a Visiting Scholar at Wolfson College, Cambridge.

Professor Barnett is currently a member of the Northern Ireland Higher Education Council (NIHEC), a member of the British Council (Northern Ireland Committee), a director of ILEX, the Derry/ Londonderry Urban Regeneration Company, a non-executive director of Bombardier Shorts Aerospace (Belfast) and Chairman of Universities Ireland. He is a companion of the Chartered Management Institute.

Professor Brian Ashcroft FRSE
University of Strathclyde

Brian Ashcroft has a BA (Hons) in Economics and Politics from the University of Lancaster (1973) and an MA (with Distinction) in Regional Economics and Planning from the University of Lancaster (1974). He became Editor of the Fraser Institute's Quarterly Economic Commentary in 1986. In April 1989, he was promoted to Research Director and for ten years from November 1989, he was Director of the Institute. In November 1999, he became the Institute’s first Policy Director. He was appointed Professor in January 1995. In March 2004 he was elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.

He has advised several governments, including the US Administration of President Carter, on matters related to regional economic development. He has also served as Specialist Adviser to the Scottish Affairs Committee of the House of Commons and has advised the Finance Committee of the Scottish Parliament and the Scottish Executive.

In 1991, he was appointed to the Secretary of State for Scotland’s Panel of Economic Consultants and in 1995 to the Northern Ireland Economic Council. In 2000, he became Co-Director of the Scottish Economic Policy Network (Scotecon) and in 2002, he was appointed to the Scottish Industrial Development Advisory Board (SIDAB), serving until 2008. In 2004, following the merger of the Northern Ireland Economic Council and the Northern Ireland Economic Research Centre, he was appointed to the Board of the successor body: the Economic Research Institute of Northern Ireland (ERINI).

Dr Graham Gudgin

Research Associate, Centre For Business Research, University of Cambridge, and Senior Economic Advisor, Oxford Economics

Dr Graham Gudgin is currently Research Associate at the Centre For Business Research at the University of Cambridge and part-time Senior Economic Advisor with Oxford Economics. He is working on a new Keynesian model of the UK economy with colleagues in Cambridge and elsewhere. He was seconded as Special Adviser to the Northern Ireland First Minister on economic policy from November 1998 -2002. Prior to this, he was the Director of the Northern Ireland Economic Research Centre, the office of which he held since the Centre was established in 1985.

Before coming to Northern Ireland he was a Senior Research Officer in the Department of Applied Economics, University of Cambridge and Economics Fellow of Selwyn College, Cambridge. He has also been advisor to the House of Commons NI Affairs Committee, a member of the Labour Party Commission on the Future of Regional Policy in England, a member of the CBI Corporate affairs Committee in Northern Ireland and a member of the Executive Committee of the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) in Dublin. He was a member of the NIERC Board from 2002-04, and until 2005, a member of the Board of the Economic Research Institute of Northern Ireland (ERINI).

Professor Michael Moore

Michael Moore has extensive experience both within and outside of academia. His field is international economics and finance, where he has written on the euro, microstructure, purchasing power parity and forward foreign exchange markets. He also has career experience in central banking as well as in promoting Ireland as a location for inward investment.

Professor Moore is currently working at Harvard University.

John Wright

John Wright is a career Commercial Banker with a strong international background. His career has spanned 43 years and has included assignments in the UK, India, Sri Lanka, West Africa, Canada, Hong Kong and the United States, before becoming Chief Executive of Oman International Bank for 7½ years. Following this, he was Chief Executive of the Northern and National Irish Banks in Ireland for 5 years and spent a brief spell as Chief Executive of the Gulf Bank in Kuwait. This was followed by 3 years as Chief Executive of Clydesdale & Yorkshire Banks prior to retirement.

He is now a Non Executive Director with a number of roles across Banking, Retailing, Manufacturing, Information Technology and Trusts.

He served as Chairman of Edinburgh Fund Managers in 2001/2002 and as a Board Member of ECGD (the UK Government Export Credit Agency) for six years until 2007. He continues as a Member of the Advisory Boards of the Arab Financial Forum, the Glasgow University School of Business, and as a Board and Executive Committee Member of the Arab British Chamber of Commerce.