After a long and glittering career, Jim Smith, the Chief Executive of CIDO has retired. Over 100 staff, board members and tenants attended a reception at the Innovation Centre to say fond farewells to Jim, who has worked at CIDO for 19 years.
During his time with CIDO, Jim has established it as one of the leading enterprise organisations in the province. Since he joined CIDO in June 1992, Jim has always been dedicated to helping others. He offered work experience to 44 graduates, which assisted them in successfully entering the world of work, one of whom is still employed by CIDO! In doing so, CIDO became one of the first organisations to achieve the LEDU quality award, recognised by Parity for training such graduates. Another impressive achievement is the development of the property portfolio which has doubled from 2 sites in 1992 to a total of 4 sites today, spanning 110,000 sq ft.
Before joining CIDO in June 1992, Jim’s career spanned 43 years during which he was an entrepreneur himself, setting up and running his own business, which he later sold. He was also the head of sales & marketing for one of Northern Ireland's public limited companies and he helped to establish LEDU in the 1970’s. He is a former director of Enterprise Northern Ireland and is also the sole Northern Ireland representative on the UKBI (UK Business Incubation) Board in London.
Under Jim’s leadership, CIDO has worked extensively all over the world from Europe and Japan to America and China, however more recently the focus of his attention has been in the development of a state-of-the-art business innovation centre. Here entrepreneurs with IP or an innovative product/service can find help in developing their business and fast tracking the product/service to market.
In today’s uncertain environment, Jim feels the challenge remains more entrepreneurial than before. He says “we need to become less reliant on big companies and the public sector and further develop the private sector. CIDO’s role is more important than ever in helping to deliver on these objectives and we want to be recognised as a business academy for the Craigavon area, helping everyone who wants to start a business, no matter how large or small.”
Whilst he bids a fond farewell to his friends and colleagues, Jim looks forward his retirement, during which he will continue with his passion for breeding Welsh & Connemara ponies and will be involved in other family business interests.