Meet The Team: Shay Burke

There's More to Chamber Membership Than Seeing Eye-To-Eye

Shay Burke was invited to take up the baton of membership development for Fingal Chamber for an initial six months. Now, just over two years later, he admits that he is thoroughly enjoying the role. An enthusiast for the benefits of Chamber membership, he believes 100% in the value of what he is encouraging others to share in.

Proud to have been born and raised in the Liberties, Shay’s first official job was in the esteemed Lord Edward Seafood Pub/Restaurant at Christchurch. “It was my university and the people I met and the things I learned there have stood to me ever since. You could say it was the start of my networking career,” he says. He went on to manage the Carrick Hall Hotel on Orwell Road in Rathgar at the age of 22.

His first fulltime sales job was with the Dublin matchmaker Maguire & Paterson, which also had agencies for various lines, including Wilkinson Sword shaving products, Marigold rubber gloves and Foster Grant sunglasses, which he sold to supermarkets, pharmacies and cash & carry outlets.

He joined Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, now owned by Pfizer, and for 22 years he was the all-island manager for its market-leading SMA infant formula. About four months after he retired from there he was approached by a former MD of Wyeth in the UK who asked him to help launch a new baby milk formula – in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Initially reluctant, he finally signed up for two years of what was to become “a fantastic end of career experience”. He eventually spent three years there and declined a fourth, returning to Ireland in 2014.

Just over two years ago he was approached with another job offer, this time by Anthony Cooney, whom he had in initially got to know through his dealings with the grocery business when he was at Wyeth, and has become an enthusiastic champion of Fingal Chamber.

“No matter what size you are, Fingal Chamber is a business-to-business organisation, and the number of referrals members can get from other members, whether just by going to a networking event or attending a zoom meeting, really is invaluable,” he says.

Shay points out that Fingal Chamber is one of the country’s largest Chambers of Commerce, comprising 1,300 individual members within 430 + member companies, and with a catchment area that includes Dublin Airport and stretches from Balbriggan in the North to Santry in the South, and from Howth in the East to Castleknock in the West. As an experienced salesperson, Shay recognises there is no substitute for face-to-face meetings. The loss of the “live” 8.00am breakfast sessions due to the pandemic has been felt acutely by many members, he says, and he emphasises the Chamber’s determination that these will resume the very moment it is safe to do so. “They enable members, large or small, to make direct contact with each other in ways that might otherwise take months to get past a PA, for example,” he notes wryly.

Bringing his depth of business experience to bear, he urges members not to wait for the resumption of “live” sessions but to engage with what is available, such as the Chamber’s Zoom meetings and webinars, even if they do not provide the same level of intimacy. “At a time like this, when people are trying to focus on the resumption of their business or identifying appropriate new strategies for the future, there is a real benefit in keeping in touch with each other. Listening to people discuss topics, one member could well find something another has to say particularly pertinent and that could be the trigger for a subsequent one-to-one discussion.”

He also notes that Fingal Chamber has a close and strong working relationship with Fingal County Council and says there is ample evidence of the practical value of this relationship at both official and less formal levels. “Our ability to work well together is a strong positive for the membership,” he says. “For example, last year Fingal County Council launched free public WiFi in a number of locations throughout Fingal, including Howth, Malahide, Swords, Rush, Donabate, Balbriggan and Blanchardstown and we worked closely with them on that project, identifying suitable locations for positioning the technical equipment with the help of our members.”

There are several other highly immediate, tangible benefits to being a member of Fingal Chamber that shouldn’t be overlooked, Shay adds. These include member-to-member special offers and the Skillnet subsidised skills training service. “In some cases companies using Skillnet can be self-financing where membership costs are concerned.” Fingal Chamber also provides an export documentation service which many companies throughout the Fingal Region avails of.

“If I was starting a new business here I’d certainly want to join Fingal Chamber,” Shay concludes. “Without a doubt it’s a great base from which to start a business as part of the local business community. The world will solve this Coronavirus problem and as the end comes ever nearer you may well find you need fellow members in the network to help you kick start your business again. I’m convinced Fingal Chamber will be even more relevant and important going into the future.”