Eileen Montgomery will be in charge of driving Belfast’s innovation strategy Credit: Innovation City Belfast Innovation City Belfast (ICB) has appointed a new digital innovation commissioner. Eileen Montgomery, who joins ICB after a three-decade long career in manufacturing, has taken over from Mark Gillan, who was appointed to the role in September 2021. Montgomery has worked as a senior leader at some of the world’s leading manufacturers, most recently as vice president of engineering at US industrial products company Crane ChemPharma & Energy. She is also a former guest lecturer in product design at Queen’s University in Belfast. In her new position, Montgomery will be expected to lead the delivery of an investment plan and innovation strategy, develop an innovation project portfolio, and manage relationships within the innovation ecosystem. The role also requires Montgomery to establish national and international partnerships with stakeholders and funding bodies. In a press release announcing the appointment, Ian Greer, vice chancellor at Queen’s University in Belfast and ICB chair, said that Montgomery brings a unique skill set to ICB which will be ‘extremely valuable’ in supporting the organisation’s vision to drive inclusive innovation via the collaboration of industry, academia and government. “She truly is an industry leader in innovation,” Greer said. Innovation City Belfast is a partnership formed by six of the city’s key institutions: Belfast City Council, Belfast Harbour, Catalyst, Queen’s University Belfast and Ulster University, with Invest Northern Ireland as an advisory partner. The work carried out by the organisation aims to establish Belfast as a globally significant destination for innovation and deliver a long-term plan that will maximise the impact of the £1 billion Belfast Region City Deal. Its priorities for the city include investing in advanced wireless networks, establishing an Innovation Investment Service and building the workforce’s skills for new jobs in the digital economy. Related content feature TransUnion transforms its business with IT On the heels of its Neustar acquisition, the consumer credit reporting agency seeks to give customers access to its troves of consumer data to fuel next-generation services through solutions platform OneTru. By Paula Rooney Apr 26, 2024 6 mins Financial Services Industry Digital Transformation Artificial Intelligence feature The 10 highest-paying industries for IT talent The tech industry isn’t the only hot spot for IT jobs, as there’s a growing demand for IT pros across every industry. These 10 verticals pay the most for IT roles, according to data from Dice. By Sarah K. White Apr 26, 2024 7 mins Salaries IT Jobs Careers brandpost Sponsored by Palo Alto Networks M&A action is gaining momentum, are your cloud security leaders prepared? Direct visibility is critical in M&A, and cloud-native application protection platforms (CNAPP) are ideal to provide this capability. By Amol Mathur, SVP & GM of Prisma Cloud, Palo Alto Networks Apr 25, 2024 4 mins Cloud Management news CIOs eager to scale AI despite difficulty demonstrating ROI, survey finds CIOs prioritize integrating AI into their organizations alongside cybersecurity, according to a new survey. By Sandeep Budki Apr 25, 2024 5 mins Artificial Intelligence PODCASTS VIDEOS RESOURCES EVENTS SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER From our editors straight to your inbox Get started by entering your email address below. Please enter a valid email address Subscribe