Glyn Roberts was appointed Chief Executive of the Northern Ireland Independent Retail Trade Association (NIIRTA) on January 2008 after serving seven years as Head of Press and Parliamentary Affairs with the Federation of Small Businesses in Northern Ireland.

Glyn was Vice-Chairman of the Northern Ireland Assembly and Business Trust (2011-12) and remains on the NIABT Board. In addition he is a member of the Institute of Directors Economic Strategy Committee, a council member of Chest Heart & Stroke, Board member of Oxfam Ireland and a former Chairman of the Northern Ireland Government Affairs Group.

Previous positions held include, Public Affairs Director with Weber Shandwick World-Wide, Head of Communications for the Ulster Cancer Foundation and was Manager of a Community Work Programme in West Belfast for the long-term unemployed.

He also served a four year term as a member of the OFCOM Advisory Board in Northern Ireland and was a Producer of the Week In Week Programme for Belfast City Beat 96.7FM for five years.

Glyn holds a degree in Political Science from the University of Ulster and is a graduate of Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, Leaders for Tomorrow Programme (2008) and the US State Department International Leadership Programme (2007).

Last year Glyn was shortlisted in Belfast Media Groups Top Forty Under Forty, the Top Fifty Belfast Business people and was a finalist in the Ulster Tatler Businessman of the Year in 2009.

Glyn has recently been made a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations.

He is also the joint author of the FSB Publications Reviving Retail in Northern Ireland and ‘Thinking Big for Business’ - FSB Assembly Election Manifesto 2007. Recently he wrote and complied the report ‘Programme For Prosperity’ - NIIRTA’s Economic Programme For Government and the ‘Town Centre First” report.