Northern Ireland Invest Forum

David McCurley

Partner, Whiterock

David is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants Ireland. He is an experienced financial professional with investment and lead advisory experience and has been involved in structuring complex investment and M&A opportunities for over 20 years.

David has experience in structuring both equity and credit investments, strategic financial planning and cash flow analysis and lead M&A advisory having worked on buy-side and sell-side opportunities for both corporate and financial clients across a range of domestic and cross-border transactions.

He is responsible for sourcing and executing equity investment opportunities for the Growth Capital Fund having been involved in the successful deployment of a series of funds within Whiterock.

Gary Davidson

Founder, Day1

Gary Davidson is the founder of Day1 (day1founders.vc), a Northern Irish microfund writing cheques into ambitious pre-seed and early-seed founders from here. An active angel backing founders such as Seapoint and Trig, Gary has spent years working alongside NI founders, facilitating over £5M into local startups as Regional Lead at HBAN and helping founders raise capital at Founder Labs. He is based at Ormeau Labs in Belfast.

George Minoprio

Managing Director, Gallagher

George is a Managing Director in the Gallagher Private Equity and M&A practice advising domestic and international Private Equity, Corporates, and their advisors on all insurance related matters around a transaction. Specialisms include Insurance Due Diligence, Warranty and Indemnity Insurance, Tax and other Contingency insurance placements.

Prior to focussing on M&A at Gallagher, George looked after global accounts at Aon and Heath Lambert.

 

Hal Wilson

Partner, Techstart Ventures

Hal has been active in the early-stage tech investment market since 1996 and has invested across the Northern Ireland, Irish and Scottish markets. In 2014, Hal founded Techstart Ventures, an early-stage tech focused fund manager. With circa £200m under management, Techstart Ventures invests across the Northern Ireland Scottish markets and has a portfolio of circa 150 companies.

Ian Kerr

Founding Partner, Beltrae

Ian graduated from Queen’s University with a PhD and subsequently moved to London to work in corporate finance for the American Investment Bank, JP Morgan. He returned to N.Ireland in 1992 to run the corporate finance division of PwC and was made a Partner in the firm in 1996. In 2003, Ian was one of four founding shareholders/directors of Beltrae Partners, an all-island corporate finance and private equity firm with offices in Belfast and Dublin.  

Ian has completed over 420 M&A deals with a combined value of over £4.7bn. Ian and his colleagues in Beltrae have invested in 26 companies in Ireland of which they have exited from 16 of these.

Ian sits on the investment board of The Queen’s University of Belfast investment fund, QUBIS and the Advisory Board of Techstart.  Ian was Chairman of PathXL, a med-tech spin-out from QUB, from its formation in 2008 to its subsequent sale to Philips Healthcare in 2016. He has been chairman of Neurovalens since 2017, a med-tech spinout company, that has raised over £25m in VC funding.

Ian is a keen golfer and was Chairman of the Royal Portrush Championship Committee for Open Championship in July 2025. 

Jason Zillwood

UK Sales Director, PNC

Jason is UK Sales Director for PNC Business Credit. He is responsible for leading the PNC UK Business Development team and driving the growth strategy and deal execution with Private Equity Groups, Credit Funds, Corporate Finance and Debt Advisers across the UK and Ireland. He has a wealth of experience across a variety of Senior Secured financing including Asset-Based Lending – both on a bilateral and syndicated basis, Stretch Cash Flow, Unitranche and Super Senior structures.

Jason is a qualified chartered accountant and prior to joining PNC in 2015 he spent time working for a ‘Big 4’ advisory firm in Audit and Corporate Finance, time in Debt Advisory and in a European and a US owned lending institution.

Jessica Rassmussen

CEO & Co-Founding Partner, Two Magnolias

Jessica founded Two Magnolias in 2019 with her business partner Marie Korde and serves as its Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founding Partner.

Jessica has led Two Magnolias from its early inception as an Angel investment vehicle in December 2019, through to its launch as an Early-Stage Venture Capital fund, achieving its first close in September of 2022, with the sole purpose of filling the clear opportunity gaps that are present in the UK Venture Capital ecosystem. This Fund was built on the founding principles of investing in entrepreneurs focused on Sustainability and Human Health solutions, based solely in the UK.

As CEO, Jessica is passionate about bringing a clear vision and lens to investment opportunities that exist within the Nations and Regions of the UK, that provide a clear and impactful outcome to local communities. Jessica’s involvement in strategically positioning the Fund to ensure that both female and ethnically diverse founders receive an equal voice has been identified as a critically important part of the drive for Equality within the UK’s Venture and Private Equity Industry.

Prior to building Two Magnolias, Jessica spent 30 years working in Investment Banking as a Global Markets expert, advising the world’s largest macro fund managers across fixed Income products. She spent her last 10 years at Bank of America, London as a Managing Director, and part of the EMEA leadership team holding significant revenue responsibility.

Jessica has been an investor in her own right with a personal portfolio that spans FinTech, EdTech, Sports Nutrition and Entertainment. She has strong international roots and was an early investor into funds focused on the advancement of Quantum Computing and Nature Based Advisory solutions.

Jessica is an Advisor and NED to companies that span the universe of climate change disruption to social impact. She currently sits as a NED of Balance Eco Ltd and Sing King Ltd.

Jessica holds a BSc in Management Science from Warwick University and is certified in Climate Change and Epidemiology at the Yale School of Public Health.

Marina Donohoe

CEO, QUBIS

As Chief Executive Officer, Marina is responsible for leading QUBIS and overseeing its activities in supporting the creation and growth of companies emerging from Queen’s research, working with industry and investors to bring new technologies to market.

Prior to joining QUBIS, Marina held a senior leadership role at Enterprise Ireland, where she led the Research, Innovation and Infrastructure Division. In this role, she worked closely with universities and partners across the research and innovation ecosystem to drive and maximise the societal and economic impact of public investment.

Marina’s career spans research, innovation, and international business. She has led teams in Ireland and spent 18 years working overseas in the United States and Europe. She brings extensive experience supporting high-potential start-ups and helping companies expand into international markets.

Mark Sterritt

Partner, British Business Bank

Awaiting speaker biography.