Release Date: Friday, August 4, 2000

TERRY COLLEGE PROFESSOR PARTICIPATES IN E-BUSINESS CENTER LAUNCH IN NORTHERN IRELAND

ATHENS, Ga. — Patrick G. McKeown, head of the management information systems department at the University of Georgia's Terry College of Business, just returned from the launch of the Northern Ireland Center for e-Business (NICeB) in Coleraine, Northern Ireland.

McKeown attended as the guest of the co-executive director of NICeB, Gerard Parr, who was a member of an 18-person group that visited the University of Georgia and three other Southeastern research universities in May.

Collaborative projects between NICeB and the Terry College's proposed Center for Information Systems Leadership are in development. One such project involves students from both universities forming a virtual team to work on a joint e-commerce project that will test marketing ideas for agricultural exports. The UGA representatives will be MBA students who are enrolling in the new Internet Technology master's program, which is being offered by the MIS and computer science departments and the university's New Media Institute.

NICeB, which provides support for Irish companies to embrace e-business developments and technology, is a joint project of the faculty of informatics and the faculty of business and management at the Coleraine campus of the University of Ulster. Both faculties are among the largest in Europe. The faculty of informatics has almost 1,900 full- and part-time students and graduates about 600 students each year. The faculty of business and management has 6,000 full-time students on three of the four campuses of the University of Ulster.

Approximately 100 people from academics, industry and government attend the launch of NICeB. The center was formally launched by Peter Mandelson, the U.K. Secretary of State for Northern Ireland; Gerry McKenna, vice-chancellor of the University of Ulster; and Professors Delores O'Reilly and Parr. Also attending the ceremony was Jane Benton Fort, U.S. consul general for Northern Ireland, and Sir Reg Empey, minister of enterprise, trade and investment for the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Northern Ireland Center for e-Business home page, www.niceb.ulst.ac.uk. For more information, contact Patrick McKeown at 706-542-3341 or email.

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