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Business INsight
TUESDAY SEPTEMBER 14 2021
business@irishnews.com
www.irishnews.com
INquote
IN THE SPOTLIGHT…
APPOINTMENTS
…this week is Chris McCracken, managing director of LQ BID
Chris believes in building better Belfast What was your rst job?
After school I worked in the post room of the Department for Education to help raise funds for uni. I can still remember the delight of receiving my rst pay cheque.
What do you attribute your success to?
How would you describe yourself to someone who had never met you?
I believe in building a better Belfast, the city of my birth in a region I am proud to call home.
Who do you look up to in your industry?
My professional role is place management and I really admire people like Máirtín Ó Muilleoir, who was an outstanding lord mayor and a constant advocate for Belfast on the international stage, and Maurice Kinkead, who over the course of many years has transformed the physical environment in east Belfast and the self-condence of its communities.
BIDs have a great partnership with the public sector and local government. I would love to see this taken to the next step and devolve public sector capital funds to business improvement districts, to help deliver the place management agenda.
winter I switch to my Cannondale Cyclo-Cross or the excellent train service from Holywood to Belfast when wet. The NI Executive should prioritise much greater investment in cycling infrastructure to support active travel, improved health, and a cleaner environment.
How do you get the best out of people who work with you?
What website or app could you not do without?
linenquarter.org – it’s our main conduit for supporting our digital mailshot and highlighting all the great projects under way including our shared public spaces, including our newly-launched parklet and our programme to transform the Linen Quarter into Northern Ireland’s rst sustainable district.
Tell us something interesting about yourself?
Linen Quarter BID is focused on meaningful delivery. I help dene projects with team members, including quality standards, then meet with them every week and provide relevant support. Aside from that I let team members get on with things and to work with autonomy and their own creative input. I am honestly amazed by how much a team of four or ve people can actually achieve, when they are given the freedom to do so.
If you could change one thing about your industry in Northern Ireland, what would it be?
What was the last book you read?
A Shared Home Place by Seamus Mallon. The book provides a moving account of where our society has come from, and the direction we need to travel.
I love wreck diving and have notched up memorable experiences, including U-boats in the English Channel, and the remains of the Laurentic, a White Star ocean liner that was sunk by German mines in 1917, off the coast of Donegal.
What’s your greatest passion outside work and family?
What car do you drive?
Border Collies. I have owned three and my current dog Kerry is a wonderful companion – intelligent, playful, and active.
I try to minimise driving. During the summer I commute to work on my Scott CR1 road bike and during the
n For more information on the Linen Quarter and the work of LQ BID, visit linenquarter.org.
“The biggest risk is not taking any risk. In a world that is changing really quickly, the only strategy that is guaranteed to fail is not taking any risks” – Mark Zuckerberg
Getting on the UK Civil Service Fast Stream programme gave me a good start at an early age and gave me great experience of systems thinking – taking a policy from concept through to meaningful delivery. It also taught me the limitations of government and the importance of allowing private enterprise and grass roots community to take over as soon as the policy framework is in place.
Ciara Kellett has been appointed director of operations for Irishowned pizza chain Four Star Pizza, where she has worked for the past three years as project lead consultant for the creation and development of the Bun Bros brand. She has spent more than 20 years in retail FMCG and foodservice industries in Ireland in senior positions with Musgrave Wholesale Partners, Primeline Group and Johnson Brothers
Stephen Spence has been appointed IT operations manager at Belfast-based telecommunications rm Barclay Communications, where he will manage a team of IT engineers to future-proof the business’s IT services. He has worked for the company for the past six years as a senior IT engineer
Belfast Central Mission (BCM) has appointed Gayle McGurnaghan as its new head of people and organisational development. She joins after almost two decades with the NI Probation Board, where she had most recently been deputy head of HR. She specialises in organisational development and culture, change management, and performance management