Seamus has recently retired from Cork City Council where he headed up the Economic Development unit in the Strategic Planning and Economic Development section of Cork City Council with responsibility for advocating and promoting the city (and region) for FDI and indigenous growth with a focus on the development and integration of the innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem of the city and region with the key city stakeholders.
Seamus has a strong background in urban regeneration and economic development based on his experience of the last 21 years following 21 years in engineering consultancy. He was responsible for developing the initial infrastructure strategy of the Cork Docklands 1.0, which is now a key priority regeneration project for the city as Docklands 2.0. He was also lead on the development of the business plan and the economic planning for the Docklands area and the city.
He formerly led the development of economic relationships and collaboration with Sister cities of Shanghai, Wuxi, Hangzhou, and Shenzhen and is now supporting Local Authorities and businesses to develop economic ties with China. He is now a consultant supporting Ireland China Science and Technology Association (ICSATA) as a Senior Advisor.
Seamus, just prior to retirement, collaborated with the City Council Arts Officer in procuring and directing a consultant to complete a report on the Needs Assessment for the Arts and Culture sector in Cork which sets out the short, medium, and long-term requirements for the comprehensive development of the sector.
He has previously engaged with the Arts, Cultural, and Creative sectors through leading an EU project called Cult CreaTE which culminated in developing a cluster for the cultural and creative sector in Cork with participating organisations including Sample Studios which was branded STAMP and the successful creation of annual festival of the same name.
He now is delighted to join the Board of Sample-Studios to assist them in the journey of development of their organisation locally regionally and internationally.