Ultan Faherty is area manager with WESTBIC in the North West region with responsibility for the provision of business planning and project development support to new high-potential start-up projects and expanding knowledge intensive businesses. In his WestBIC support activities to the Halo Business Angel Network, Ultan matches private investors with pre-screened investment opportunities in start-up, early stage and developing business across many business sectors. He also provides business support services to companies based at the CoLab incubation centre based on-campus at Letterkenny Institute of Technology. Ultan was central to the development and management of the Cross-Border BIC (CBBIC), a virtual BIC initiative between Noribic, Derry and WESTBIC in the North West region of Ireland, with a particular focus on the development of cross-border networks and clusters leading to the economic development of the North West region as a whole. Ultan also supported WESTBIC’s activities in the iFactory project, alongside Noribic in delivering bespoke innovation supports to small businesses with an aspiration to grow, compete and succeed.  Ultan is also an assistant lecturer on Letterkenny Institute of Technology’s BA in Business Administration, BA in Social and Community Enterprise and the LLLBBS Programme.