The Northern Ireland start-up and innovation community is reeling after the death was announced of Dr. Gary McCausland. The outpouring of tributes and respects for Gary via social media demonstrates the impact he made across the sector and at a very personal level.
One of his many friends, Rich Dale, CEO and Founder of Flowlens told us: “I’ve known Gary since 1999 and he has been both a friend and a mentor ever since. I wouldn't be doing what i'm doing today if it wasn't for Gary's never-ending support, relentless optimism, quiet determination, timely pints and sanity preserving perspectives.”
Long before the world, never mind Northern Ireland, had incubators and accelerators and co-working spaces and meetups, Gary co-founded Dream Ireland in Belfast with Michael O'Neill. Dream was a place for ideas to develop and creative people to come together and a wide array of careers were kick started as a result. Gary was expert in creating those opportunities for inspiration, and also had a canny knack of sniffing out enough cash to give these projects a fighting chance.
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Not content with working solely in the digital space, Gary also helped steer the Black Box into the thriving arts venue it’s become at the heart of the Cathedral Quarter. Next he threw himself back into education, achieving a PhD in 2017.
Gary had returned to Belfast in the mid 90s, after being right in the middle of one of the most important cultural phenomenons in music history at Factory Records. He spearheaded production and marketing for the likes of New Order and The Happy Mondays, including the task of breaking these uniquely British bands into the US market. A punk to his core, Gary relished the challenge of smashing the status quo with creative and novel ways of selling records for the scrappy label, elbowing its way in amongst the established majors.
Most recently, Gary worked within Invest Northern Ireland, and over the last 15 years, worked with countless start-up companies and founders to help them navigate the uncertain waters of early stage business development. Not only that, he was quietly proud of the work he did to steer policies, support mechanisms and networks that continue to support founders today.
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Founder and CEO of Right Revenue, Adrienne Hanna paid tribute: “Gary was the first person that believed in me. The first person that told me I could. The person who saw me in tears and called to reassure me on my worst of days. Who always had a hug at the ready and a 'honey, you got this!'. He told me to never give up; and to create anarchy. He swam against the tide and we all loved him for it. Always different... always the same.”
Martin Neill, CEO and Founder of Airpos added: “Gary was the first person to ever recognise my ideas - backing me in an early tech music product when no-one else would give me the time of day. He believed in me, his enthusiasm and vision were unwavering. He changed my life. And after he was a source of endless help, support and wreck the place to rebuilt it better spirit. Endlessly pushing forward, always ready to go. The doctor of punk. Thank you my friend.”
Colleagues from Invest Northern Ireland and across the business world have also paid tribute to his tireless work, endless enthusiasm and quiet determination to make things better for the innovation sector here.
Colleague Gren Armstrong commented: “I was delighted when Gary joined the High Potential Entrepreneurship team four years ago. His strength was in how he engaged with entrepreneurs and talked their language, while in parallel doing his best to get them the support they needed.
He just “got it”. He was over the moon in June when he got a well deserved promotion, engaging directly with the next generation of founders coming though Founder Labs, our new Accelerator. This is where he thrived and helped others to do so too. I’ve been really touched by the many comments from his friends and colleagues across Invest NI, founders and ecosystem partners since Wednesday’s shattering news – the common themes were ‘Great guy, always smiling, he understands us, determined to help.. he was our friend’.”
Dale sums up the attitude that so many have paid tribute to “Above all he never gave up looking for better ways to do things."
Gary leaves behind a grieving partner, mother, sister, children, nieces, nephews and grandchildren. The sheer breadth of love, appreciation and respect from his friends across the business and creative sectors may hopefully prove to be some small solace in their time of loss.
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