As he prepares to retire from InterTradeIreland, Liam Nellis reflects on how, despite political turmoil in the North, ITI fostered business on both sides of the Border

IN 1999, LIAM NELLIS, a native of north Belfast and a career civil servant with a long background in economic development, was asked would he take over as head of InterTradeIreland.

But being local, understanding the politics and divisions of Northern Ireland, he knew full well he was potentially stepping onto a minefield, and that it would take some deft footwork to emerge safely the other side.

It was a tumultuous time, particularly for an organisation such as InterTradeIreland – considering that it was one of the six North-South bodies formed from the Belfast Agreement of the previous year.

Ulster Unionist Party leader David Trimble was struggling to hold the line within his party so that the Northern Executive could be formally established – as happened late in 1999 – while the DUP and other anti-agreement unionists were in revolt.

InterTradeIreland, not surprisingly, was characterised by some politicians as a most malign form of “North-Southery”, a possible Trojan horse designed to lead to a united Ireland.

So, the first chief executive of InterTradeIreland was a job that could have been a poisoned chalice for Nellis.

But then he had a chat with Martin Naughton, who had agreed to be chairman of the organisation. As head of Glen Dimplex, the world’s largest electrical heating business, Naughton knew a thing or two about solving difficult problems. “Keep it simple,” was his approach. He told Nellis: “When you put two business people in a room together, they will do business.”

It was an uncomplicated but revelatory statement that cleared away problems and doubt, and it was this sage counsel that became the undeclared motto and unofficial mission statement of InterTradeIreland.

“That was almost the nucleus of our corporate plan and our thinking, and that hasn’t really changed over the years,” says Nellis, who is stepping down in May after almost 13 years at the helm. He’s approaching 60 and is vacating his post at a time when he has “still something left to give”.

InterTradeIreland (ITI) is the only organisation that supports SMEs (small to medium-sized enterprises) across the island. Nellis is proud of the fact that in its relatively brief existence it has done good work. ITI has its headquarters in Newry, Co Down, and employs 42 people. Since 1999, it has helped 19,000 SMEs with information and advice, involved 2,400 enterprises in ITI-run programmes, helped companies generate business worth £600 million, and created and sustained more than 1,300 jobs.

Among a range of functions, ITI helps companies find new business and investment, develop new products, cooperate in joint initiatives with enterprises across the Border to win more trade, ensure the exchange of information and technology, and bring in graduates with specific areas of knowledge to allow companies to grow.

Just last month in Dublin, in the company of President Michael D Higgins, Nellis attended The Irish TimesInterTradeIreland Innovation awards that recognise the spirit of enterprise, which he says is alive and well in Ireland, and which he greatly admires. "I love working with entrepreneurs, I love it to bits, they have so much passion and energy."

It’s clear that Nellis has helped bring ITI to a place where it is well anchored in the business community on both sides of the Border. But to achieve that success, it had to overcome those initial suspicions, primarily from unionist politicians.

He returns to how he applied Naughton’s maxim. When ITI started, Nellis had “no office, no staff and £9 million to spend”. One of the first operations was to host four roadshows in Dublin, Belfast, Limerick and Derry and, at the same time, to survey 1,500 business people. “The accepted truths were that the gulf between the two economies, the lack of engagement, was down to the harder issues, maybe the political situation, the currency differentials, corporation tax, infrastructure deficits,” he recalls.

“But quite consistently across all four locations, the biggest issues for businesses were the softer ones. It was the lack of relationship,” says Nellis. “It was quite clear this gulf between the two economies did not begin at the start of the Troubles in 1969. It began at partition when successive governments began introducing tariffs.”

His view is well served by a recent "From the ( Irish Times) Archives" piece from February 29th, 1928 ,which illustrated how those same tariffs led to the loss of some 300 jobs and the closure of the Marsh and Company biscuit concern in Belfast.

Nellis elaborates: “Not surprisingly, the business people did not know each other, the universities did not really engage, economic departments and agencies and businesses in the North and South did not engage. Our job quite clearly was to get these two groups of people to turn and face each other and begin first of all building the trust and then building the business relationships. And that’s really what’s been the golden thread running through everything we’ve done since then.” In other words, putting business people in a room together to do business.

And the political hostility settled down quicker than most people imagined. He recalls in the early days the first North-South Ministerial Council trade sectoral meeting at the Europa Hotel in Belfast featuring a “cast of thousands”, from politicians to protesters to battalions of reporters and camera crews.

Twelve months later when the next such meeting was held in Belfast, “there was hardly a camera, there was hardly a reporter” because there were no ructions to report. “We have quite successfully moved from being thought of as a political entity to a business organisation.”

Nellis is looking forward to the new chapter in his life. “I think I am young enough at 60 to continue to provide a meaningful contribution in whatever I go on to do,” he says. He’s busy enough as it is, being on the council of the University of Ulster, the board of the Institute of British-Irish Studies at UCD, a number of charitable boards, not to mention some non-executive directorships that may be beckoning.

There’s also some grandparenting work to do with his wife Cathy for his son Gary’s two children, Shea and Fionn. His second son, Rory, has given him a guitar and he’s now learning some blues and other pieces. He’s also studying the Irish language with his schoolboy pal John Linehan – who plays the comedy character of Mai McFettridge. Then there’ll be the Arsenal, Antrim GAA and Ireland rugby games to attend, and an ambition to get his golf handicap down from 22 to 18. Nellis won’t be idle.

He concludes that bodies such as InterTradeIreland have a major role in lifting both parts of the island out of the economic quagmire. And his advice for his successor, like Naughton’s, also to the point: “Just keep on doing what we are doing and be alive for the need for change. And keep getting people to engage with each other.”