Innovation City Belfast (ICB) has appointed a new Digital Innovation Commissioner to drive forward its mission to develop the city as a globally significant destination for innovation.
Eileen Montgomery takes up the role following an almost three-decade career as a Senior Leader at some of the world’s leading manufacturers including Crane Co and Ford Motor Company.
Commenting on her appointment, Professor Ian Greer, Vice-Chancellor, Queen’s University, Belfast and ICB Chair said: “With her incredible breadth of experience both here in Northern Ireland and across the globe, holding a variety of senior roles at successful companies, she truly is an industry leader in innovation.”
Professor Greer also added: “Eileen brings to ICB a unique skillset which will be extremely valuable to support our shared vision of better collaboration between industry, academia and government to drive inclusive innovation and growth, creating more and better jobs and improving quality of life.”
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Councillor Emmet McDonough-Brown, Chair of Belfast City Council’s Strategic Policy and Resources Committee added: As a partnership spanning academia, the public and private sectors, Innovation City Belfast brings together some of our city’s most significant institutions under a singular vision. Through engagement and collaboration with our local SMEs and the international business community, this partnership spearheaded by Eileen, will enhance the digital innovation ecosystem of Belfast and secure Northern Ireland’s reputation as a fantastic place to start and grow businesses, on the global stage.”
Still an Engineer at heart, Eileen also has extensive experience as an Executive across the automotive and oil and gas industries and has held a number of roles at leading companies, most recently as Vice-President of Engineering at US industrial products giant Crane.
With a commitment to encouraging and educating future STEM leaders, Eileen is also a former guest lecturer in Product Design at Queen’s University, Belfast.
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ICB comprises a partnership of six anchor institutions in the partnership including Belfast City Council, Belfast Harbour, Catalyst, Queen’s University, Belfast and Ulster University, with Invest NI as advisory partner.
For more information on Innovation City Belfast, visit www.innovationcitybelfast.com or follow Twitter @ICBelfast.
Source: Written from press release.
