Ahead of the April 2025 West Belfast Small Business Roundtable, guest speaker Emer Hinphey, a native of Dungiven, Co Derry and a Partner in AAB,  joins Máirtín Ó Muilleoir for the Lagan Stream podcast. Emer was co-founder and CEO of Think People Consulting, an award-winning business consultancy specialising in People and Culture which was acquired by AAB in 2023.

"My childhood was played to the soundtrack of the Sunday Game and Micheál Ó Muircheartaigh ," she says. "My christening, family legend has it, was canceled a couple of times for hurling matches. That's just how it was but in retrospect what a great way that was to grow up."

A passionate camóg, Emer is a Chartered Member of the CIPD and sits on the committee of IOD, NI. She is a previous external member of the Central Procurement Department advisory commitment and board member of Ortus and Positive Life.

Dr. Hugh Cormican is one of our most highly-regarded business leaders. Now heading up health diagnostic company Cirdan, he was a co-founder of West Belfast-based digital camera company Andor which floated in 2004.

In this podcast, recorded ahead of his address to the West Belfast Small Business Roundtable on 25 March 2025 in An Chultúrlann, he tells how his decision to become a business founder was shaped by an Irish Development Authority official who told him — at the tender age of 16  — that he would be an entrepreneur.

Though one doubts that even that far-sighted civil servant could have predicted that one day Hugh would aim to make his company one of Ireland's few unicorns (a business with a value of £1bn or $1bn).

Born in West Belfast, physics grad Hugh spent his formative years in Newry, Co. Down returning to the city on the Lagan to go to Queen's. He's in business to save lives through improved and innovative healthcare solutions.

Where Andor was about helping researchers do better, Cirdan is about helping the sick get better. 

Hugh was speaking with Máirtín Ó Muilleoir, director of the Belfast Media Group.

Bhunaigh Irial Mac Murchú Nemeton TV i 1994 - sular bunaíodh TnaG (TG4 ina dhiaidh sin) - le déanamh cinnte nach bhfágfaí Gaeltacht na nDéise ar cúl maidir le buntáistí na teilifíse nua de.

Agus é ag pleanáil do chaint bricfeasta i mBéal Feirste mar chuid de Seachtain na Gaeilge i Márta 2025, dearcann sé siar ar bhlianta tosaigh Nemeton TV agus tugann sé comhairle don té atá ag brath gnó nua a bhunú.

Máirtín Ó Muilleoir sa chathaoir, is i nGaeilge atá an comhrá seo.

Irial Mac Murchú, founder and director of leading Irish language broadcasting company Nemeton, will visit Belfast on 4 March 2025 to address the next West Belfast Small Business Roundtable in An Chultúrlann.

In a podcast released in the run-in to the Seachtain na Gaeilge event, the Waterford man describes how 'Gaeltacht na nDéise' effectively came back from the grave in the sixties — when just four or five families were raising their children through Irish — to the situation today where it is the only Gaeltacht in the country with a growing population.

This podcast is in Irish. 

Former Chartered Accountants of Ireland President John Hannaway chats with Máirtín Ó Muilleoir for the Lagan Stream podcast ahead of his presentation at the West Belfast Small Business Roundtable in An Chultúrlann on 28 January. 

The first person from West Belfast to make partner in accountancy firm Coopers and Lybrand, John enjoyed a stellar career at PwC before leaving at the age of 55 to set up his own shop: HCA Chartered Accountants.

The former St Mary's Grammar School boy boasts an eclectic client ledger, ranging from companies with £200m in turnover to fledgling start-ups. In his podcast interview with Máirtín Ó Muilleoir, John says he remains deeply proud of his West Belfast heritage and upbringing - and holds a special place in his heart for his dad who died in 1976 at the age of just 43.

This week on the Lagan Stream Podcast, were delighted to bring you a lively and captivating discussion from the Irish Round Table in the Valley, which was hosted by Aisling Events and Stanford University, California, on May 9th, 2024. In the chair is Chris Ehrlich, editor-in-chief of tech news publication VKTR, and our panelists are Andrea Haughian, Head of Americas with Invest Northern Ireland, Ivan Houlihan, head of the West Coast USA, and IDA Ireland, and Michael Madden, head of the School of Computer Science at University of Galway. The panel was rounded out by Giancarlo DiVece of Union Square, a company headquartered in Guadalajara but with offices across the Americas and in Belfast, Ireland.

In this edition of the Lagan Stream podcast, we're bringing you another captivating discussion from the Irish Round Table in the Valley, which was hosted by Aisling Events and Stanford University on May 9th, 2024. Our topic is AI disruption in the workplace, and the chair is Ken Nim, director of CityBuild with the City of San Francisco, Julie Lind, executive officer of San Mateo Labor Council, Steve Morrow, CEO of Belfast based global company Options-I.T., and legendary fintech business figure John McDonnell of Phoenix Managed Networks.

Welcome to the inaugural episode of The Lagan Stream Podcast. This week we're bringing you a recording of a panel discussion at the Irish Round Table in the Valley, which Aisling Events hosted in Stanford University on May 9th, 2024. In the chair was Harley Semple of Options I.T. and her Bay Area based panelists are Gareth Keane, an investor with Promus Ventures, Rich Moran, an author and venture capitalist, Anna Patterson, founder of Ceramic AI, and Jason Devitt, CEO and co-founder of Compound Eye.