Parker Green Advisory Board Takes Bite Out of Credit Crunch

26th JAN 2009

Parker Green recently celebrated the first local meeting of the Advisory Board, by hosting a ‘Dinner with the Experts’ event, titled ‘Responding to the Global Credit Crunch’.
A number of advisors and experts addressed in excess of 200 people from the business, financial, political, media and voluntary sectors at the event with a view to stimulating discussion and debate about the global economic crisis.

Contributors included Parker Green’s Advisory Board members former Irish prime Minister, Bertie Ahern TD, Gregory Tosko, CBRE- New York and Debbie Rennick, ACT Venture Capital.

Dr. Gerard O’Hare, PGI’s Managing Director, said, “We were absolutely delighted with the turnout at the event and the type of discussion it stimulated. It is my belief that politicians cannot be expected to become economists overnight and bankers cannot be expected to look beyond their own difficulties at this time. We should not rely on these people alone to solve the global crisis we are facing. Leadership comes from a cohesive approach from the wider community. This event afforded an opportunity for our guests to share and exchange new ways of thinking. From this approach what we have experienced here is real ideas being generated and discussed. We hope this will encourage other such events not just in Northern Ireland but right across the globe whereby people will network together to find collective solutions to this situation we all find ourselves in.”

Dr. Gerard O’Hare continued, “We held this event in Newry in conjunction with hosting Parker Green’s second advisory board meeting here in city. These meetings will be held quarterly in various global locations strategic to our business. We thought that we could utilise having so many business experts together at one time to discuss the current economic crisis.  Given the interest that was shown from a diverse range of sectors in coming to this event, we believe we have found a formula that works. Through giving people the opportunity to participate, respond and challenge the views of the experts everyone feels part of the process.”

Bertie Ahern, TD added, “Now is the time for everyone to work together to come up with ways to stimulate the economy. No one body can work in isolation to solve this crisis. This event was an excellent way of giving a wide spectrum of individuals the opportunity to have their say, debate the issues and come up with solutions tailored towards their individual or organisational circumstances.”

ParkerGreen Advisory Board member Gregory Tosko, CBRE- New York said, “I am delighted to have been a part of this innovative event. It is very seldom such a large, influential group of people come together to share ideas and discuss potential solutions to such a serious issue as the global economic downturn. I was really impressed with the level of meaningful engagement and the issues that were brought to the floor to be discussed. I hope all of the attendees found the event as useful and inspiring as I did.”