From small acorns, great oaks grow. Stuart Anderson of Northern Ireland’s Chamber of Commerce spent time during a State Department leadership programme in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Quickly realising the changes that were taking place in the US state, Anderson brought the lesson home to Belfast. This has led since to connections being made being between the chambers of commerce in both places.
“Sometimes these relationships take a while to form, but this one formed immediately,” says Suzanne Wylie, the chief executive of NI’s Chamber of Commerce. “It was remarkable how willing and open they were to work with us.”
This week Northern Ireland’s First Minister, Michelle O’Neill, and Deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly are leading the chamber’s delegation to the US state, now among the fastest-growing in the US.
The two have things in common, with both having had to reimagine their economies, if for different reasons. North Carolina has become a hub for innovation, moving away from depending on agriculture, tobacco and manufacturing.
Since the end of the Troubles, Northern Ireland has developed a reputation in aviation, cybersecurity, fintech and medical devices – all areas where there is room for co-operation with the US state, Ms Wylie said.
Already the ties are growing. Recently, sports data company Teamworks, which is based in Raleigh, North Carolina, bought Belfast company Kairos led by former Ireland rugby international Andrew Trimble.
“They’ve kept the base here in Belfast. They’re not taking the talent away. That’s the kind of relationship that we very much are trying to promote,” Ms Wylie said, speaking before the group’s departure.
“This is about a two-way relationship. This isn’t just going out there looking for foreign direct investment. This is about building strategic business-to-business relationships for our businesses to grow, and for their businesses to grow as well.”
Some companies travelling with the delegation are no strangers to the US, including Alan Foreman of Belfast-based cardiac technology company B Secur as 90 per cent of the firm’s business is already done there.
“Sixty per cent of the world’s healthcare budget is spent in the US, so it’s a very strong target market for us,” Mr Foreman said, adding that B Secur focused on North Carolina because of the pace of innovation there.
It has “a huge campus” in North Carolina’s Research Triangle Park centred on healthcare, research and development, innovation and commercialisation. “It is probably the greatest healthcare pool in the US, certainly outside of Boston, I would say.”
The company creates cardiac software for all forms of devices, including watches and rings, though increasingly it is being added to existing medical devices built by Medtronic, Abbott and GE Healthcare.
“Cardiovascular disease represents 2½ per cent of their overall GDP. It’s set to rise to 5 per cent of the US GDP in the next 20 years,” Mr Foreman said, highlighting the opportunity as well as the challenge.
North Carolina and other places in the southern US are increasingly the hotspots for innovation, he said. “Everybody there understands that now. People are stomping their way south.”
Roger Johnston’s company, 3D Axial, which has developed software that turns medical scans into 3D images, did three-quarters of its sales in the US last year. This year, the figure is expected to rise to 90 per cent.
“We can inform some amazing new diagnostic applications based on a much better understanding of the patient’s anatomy from the highly precise 3D rather than a series of analogue 2D photos that are a bit vague,” he said.
“We can tell exactly what type of replacement knee you need, not offer you a size 10 model. Surgeons typically pick the devices they use in operations based on a little bit of science, but largely their experience, their gut feel, their intuition.
“Those words, unfortunately, don’t sound mathematically accurate, and they’re not. So we can mathematically tell you the right device or, more importantly, we can design that device for you to be a perfect fit.”
Northern Ireland has a long history in medical devices, he said, recalling the late Co Down-born cardiologist Frank Pantridge, who who invented the world’s first portable cardiac defibrillator.
“So, all of us are now benefiting from that DNA left by Pantridge and so many others. We now have the confidence. We might be one or two cycles behind Dublin, but we have world-class companies that are being recognised,” Mr Johnston said.
