Peter Jackson

Peter has worked for 30 years with one of the World’s leading Industrial Development Agencies, Enterprise Ireland, in the formation of strategies and programs both at a sectorial and individual company level to grow the capability of Irish SMEs and increase their international competitiveness . Working within Enterprise Ireland, which has 3,500 SME clients, his experience was focussed on devising comprehensive programs in management, finance, strategy and export marketing, and providing services and mentoring in these areas to companies on an individual basis. With these skills he has worked across a wide range of sectors in particular Food, Construction and Engineering. In Food he was involved in managing a sectoral strategy to rationalize and restructure the Irish Beef Industry. He has been involved in designing world class development programs and related management tools to promote Ireland’s rapid industrial growth which with adaptation has a wide application to SME and industrial development policies in other countries.

He has had experience of working on Foregin Direct Investment with the Industrial Development Authority of Ireland (IDA), a sister company of Enterprise Ireland, and one of the world’s most successful FDI promotional agencies. He was Manager of their Office in Hong Kong for the 2 years 1990 to 1991.
Peter has worked and lived in China, Hong Kong and Turkmenistan.

His most recent focus has been in Market Development to grow Irish SME exports in the Middle East and Africa . This has involved proactively identifying market opportunities in these countries and in cooperation with SME clients devising a series of marketing strategies and activities to tap into this growth. Key growth opportunities he has identified in these regions are in Education, Infrastructure, ICT, Food and Life-Sciences. As a follow-on he has been responsible for devising Market Development Strategies for each of the key countries and sectors with an emphasis on not only on planning but also on execution by implementing on the ground practical support for clients with activities such as Trade Missions, Agent and Distributor introductions , Market seminars etc .
Peter was formerly a Director of the Arab Irish Chamber of Commerce and is currently a Director of the Irish Saudi Business Council.