About Us

Nick Price, Chairman

Nick Price was trained at Bournemouth Hotel School and went on to gain experience in France, the United States and England before returning home in 1978 to settle in Northern Ireland to open daft Eddy’s on Sketrick Island, Killinchy.

In 1983 Nick and his wife, Kathy, opened the very successful Nick’s Restaurant in Kilmood, County Down. The dream had always been to open a wine bar in Belfast and in 1989 Nick’s Warehouse was born and it has since become the heart of the Cathedral Quarter-a first choice for visitors and locals alike.

Nick’s desire to encourage the use of local produce and to improve training in the province has led to board membership of the Tourism Training Trust, an involvement in Taste of Ulster from its conception, a positive role in setting up the Framers Market at St George’s and even making his own cheese.

John A. Barrett

John is widely known throughout the business community in Northern Ireland. He is on the board of NIFDA; he is a council member of the CBI; a member of the Institute of Directors; sits on the Selection Committee of Common Purpose; is an active member of Queen’s University Chief Executive’s club and is a fund raiser for Caravan – the retail grocery national fund raising organisation.

Originally from Sussex, John joined Coca-Cola Bottlers (Ulster) Ltd in 1971, quickly working his way up through grass roots sales to establishing the company’s first telesales operation in 1975 – the first Coca-Cola operation internationally to introduce such technology. As General Sales & Commercial Manager from 1996, John oversaw the development of the change management programme. John was appointed to Coca-Cola Bottlers (Ulster) Ltd’s Board in 2001, becoming Executive Director.

Michael Bell

Michael has some twenty years experience in the food industry. He worked in the bakery trade in Northern Ireland and Malta for fourteen years. During this period he worked closely with major retailers and obtained a place on the senior management board of Ormeau Bakery.

Originally he obtained a Food Science (Hons) degree from The Queen’s University of Belfast. He holds several other food related qualifications and is a Fellow of the Institute of Food Science and Technology. In addition, he is a director of Northern Ireland Food Chain Certification Ltd (NIFCC) and he has been involved in developing NIFDA since its foundation in 1996.

Nicola Caruthers

After receiving a law degree from Queens in Belfast Nicola went on to obtain an MBA at Imperial College London. Nicola worked in Lloyds Bank and the Building Societies Association where she was a legal and policy advisor.

Returning to Belfast, after ten years in London, Nicola has been the chief executive of The Federation of Retail Licensed Trade NI since July 2000. FRLT is the trade association for Northern Ireland’s licensed trade, and represents around 1200 premises. Recognising the importance of pubs as a fundamental part of Northern Ireland’s tourism offering, FRLT is a founder member of the Northern Ireland Tourism Industry Confederation and Nicola currently serves as interim Chair.

Janice Gault

Janice Gault is a gradate of Trinity College, Dublin, she holds a Hons BA and a business postgraduate qualification. Upon graduation, Janice remained in Dublin for a number of years working in a number of senior roles in manufacturing industry before returned to Northern Ireland in 1995.

Prior to her appointment as CEO of the Hotel Federation in 2002, she was the part of the opening team for Odyssey, Northern Ireland's Landmark Millennium Project. Janice serves on a number of boards relating to tourism and has worked with key projects funding.

Maynard Mawhinney

Maynard Mawhinney is the Director of the Biotech and Food Division in Invest Northern Ireland.  Maynard leads in the development and implementation of strategy and initiatives for several sectors and has been heavily involved in the Food Strategy Group initiative.  Prior to this appointment, He was a Client Executive for the Health Technologies Sector in Invest NI and her predecessor agency the Industrial Development Board. 

Maynard studied at the University of Ulster, where he graduated in Business Studies.  He completed a Masters Degree in Marketing with distinction 6 years ago.  Maynard is a member of both the BIM and IMI. 

Joe McDonald

Joe graduated from Queens University Belfast with a BSc Honours Degree in Economics and an MSc in Agricultural Economics and Management.

He previously worked with local poultry company Moy Park, before joining the Ulster Farmers’ Union in 1995 as a policy officer with responsibility for arable and horticultural issues. He later worked as the Unions’ Milk Policy Officer, before becoming Communications Director in 2002.

His work includes promoting the benefits which agriculture brings to the local economy, consumers and the environment. He is a strong advocate of local produce and believes there is a growing interest among consumers in how and where their food is produced.

John Speers

Dr John Speers is presently on secondment from DARD to the Food Strategy implementation Partnership (FSIP), the body established to oversee delivery of the development strategy for the Northern Ireland agri-food industry, "Fit for Market". 

Previously he worked in a number of positions within DARD, most recently as Director of Environment and Food (2003-2005) and Head of Food Service/Principal of Loughry

Sue Ward

Sue Ward was appointed as Director of Marketing at NITB in June 2003.  Sue runs several departments within NITB, as well as heading up the Dublin office. 

Before joining the Tourist Board Sue headed up the Marketing Team at FG Wilson (a Caterpillar Company), Europe’s largest producer of power generating sets.  She has also worked for the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM) and spent nine years as a PE teacher early in her working career.

She holds a BA in sports studies from University Of Ulster at Jordanstown, a post graduate certificate in education from Loughborough University and a Masters degree in Marketing from UUJ.