Adrian Johnston joined Catalyst in January 2022 as Director of Strategic Business Development. Prior to this he was Head of Digital Catapult NI supporting businesses and the public sector to adopt emerging digital technologies. He also has 20 years technology leadership experience having previously worked for Seagate Technology in their Springtown facility heading the Data Science and Analytics team.

Adrian holds a PhD in Informatics / AI and is a member of the Open Data Institute. He leads the Open Innovation Team at Catalyst which stimulates research collaborations and provides companies with the support, expertise and community to innovate.

In 2019 Adrian was awarded the Ulster University Graduate of the year and received an MBE for services to peace-building and the community in NI. Adrian is passionate about Inclusive Innovation and is the current Chair of the Community Foundation for NI.

Jen Hopkins is Catalyst’s Business Development Manager, supporting the Open Innovation Team to engage with its partners and client companies, to understand their innovation needs.  Jen has a history of developing successful partner eco-systems and is bringing this experience to bare for Catalyst and its clients and partners.

Jen is Passionate about building results-driven relationships through local innovation and global best practice, supporting the Catalyst vision of creating opportunity for all from world leading innovation.

Prior to joining Catalyst, Jen worked in Microsoft and BT and more recently for a local IT start up. Jen has an extensive background in business development, delivering for both Public and Private organisations and partners on their enterprise software solution needs.

Mark McAleer is the Quality Experience Manager within the Open Innovation team at Catalyst.

He develops the business systems on that we work with making improvements on how we can better serve our members and entrepreneurs. Within the Open Innovation team, he acts as a consultant to companies providing support on their business systems with focus on Innovation Management.

Prior to working with Catalyst Mark worked as a product designer and mechanical engineer in the Life and Physical Science industries developing products for universities and research institutions.

Outside of his main career he has held roles in youth work running youth clubs in his local area and worked as a consultant supporting start-ups and small business in various areas covering engineering, design, and strategy.

During Covid he freely gave his time on various projects, the most significant being designing face masks that were used throughout Northern Ireland supporting NHS staff and key workers.

Helping people is a huge motivator for what he does and who he wants to be throughout his career.

Natasha O’Hea is Innovation Lead for the North West Region in the Open Innovation Team. Her role is pivotal in driving innovation and fostering collaboration in the region.

In her role, Natasha leads the Corporate Innovation Services offered by the Open Innovation Team. She works closely with organisations to define their innovation goals and then collaborates with them to develop and implement the most effective strategies to achieving these goals. Her focus spans across 3 key areas: Innovation Culture, Innovation Practice, Innovation Strategy. Addressing these critical aspects, Natasha helps organisations foster a thriving innovation ecosystem.

Passionate about supporting the growth and economic development of the North West Region, Natasha is an advocate for collaboration and knowledge sharing. She actively promotes partnerships among businesses, public sector and academia to foster cross-pollination of ideas and drive collective progress in the North West Region.

Andrew McCrea is Catalyst’s Innovation Delivery Manager and part of the Open Innovation Team.

As an experienced design-thinking planner and facilitator, Andrew helps shape and deliver innovation work-streams, including workshops and design / innovation sprints for partners, clients and the Catalyst suite of entrepreneurial and innovation programmes.

Before joining Catalyst, Andrew most recently spent 8 years in senior commercial, delivery and team management roles for NI based experience design agency, Fathom.

Andrew is certified by the world’s leading User Experience Design organisation, the Nielsen Norman Group, as well as being a graduate of the Design Thinkers Academy.In addition to work at Catalyst, as a student mentor for the UX Design Institute, Andrew delivers monthly online webinars to a diverse worldwide student network, studying for their Professional Diploma in User Experience Design.

Emma is the Project Administrator in the Open Innovation team at Catalyst.

Currently Emma is working on the Inclusive Innovation Skills Programme designed to help young people develop life skills to fulfil their potential.

Emma studied at St Mary’s University College Belfast where she earned a BA degree in Business Studies. She is passionate about inspiring young people to fulfil their potential and has various certificates on mental health and wellbeing in young people including a life coaching and mindfulness Diploma.

Patrick McIlveen is Catalyst’s Innovation Lead for Belfast, focused on CR&D within the Open Innovation team.

His core responsibility is identifying and managing opportunities for the industrial and commercial exploitation of research focused on creating meaningful outputs and significant regional economic impact. This includes brokering relationships between industry and academic partners, devising new strategies and consortia, and identifying revenue opportunities.

Prior to joining the Open Innovation team Patrick was part of the Co-Founders team at Catalyst and was responsible for co-ordinating stakeholders, recruitment, coaching provision and assisting in delivery of the innovation programme.

Patrick’s background includes being a co-founder in a startup and a range of business development focused positions. He earned a BA in English with Creative Writing from Queen’s University Belfast.