The Minister
Name: Sir Reg Empey
Party: Ulster Unionist Party
Email: private.office@delni.gov.uk 
Sir Reg was born in 1947 and, after attending Hillcrest Prep School, Belfast and the Royal School in Armagh, he studied Economics at Queen's University, Belfast where he graduated in 1970. Working in business and industry between 1970 and 1986 - for Goodyear International Corp., the House of Fraser, Switzer and Co., and McMahon and Co. - Sir Reg eventually founded his own business in 1986. Actively involved in politics from his student days, Sir Reg was a member of the Queen's University Conservative and Unionist Association. In 1975, when still only 28, he was elected a Member of the Northern Ireland Constitutional Convention, the body which superceded the old Northern Ireland Parliament. By 1975 he was already at the heart of the Party's machine, serving as Secretary of the Ulster Unionist Council's Policy Committee.
Sir Reg has had an active career in Belfast City Council since he was first elected as a Councillor in 1985. He has twice been Lord Mayor of Belfast, in 1989 and again in 1993. In 1994 he was appointed OBE for his services to local government. In addition to his long service as a Councillor and on numerous Council Committees, Sir Reg has served on the Senate of Queen's Univesity, as a Belfast Harbour Commissioner, as a Director of Laganside Corporation from 1992-1998, as a Member of the Eastern Health and Socal Services Board and on the Standing Advisory Commission on Human Rights from 1994-1996. Sir Reg was also a Vice-President pf the Ulster Unionist Party from 1996-2004.
In the 1990's he served as a leading member of the Ulster Unionist negotiating teams both in the Brooke-Mayhew talks of 1991 and in the Castle Buildings talks which ultimately led to the Belfast Agreement and the formation of the present Assembly in 1998. Sir Reg was elected to the new Assembly and was subsequently Knighted (KBE) in the New Year's Honours List of 1999.
On the formation of the Executive in 1999, Sir Reg was appointed as Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Investment, a position he held until the collapse of the power-sharing Executive in October 2002. In addition, during the Summer of 2001 he served for a time as Acting First Minister of Northern Ireland. In 2004 Sir Reg became Deputy Leader of the Ulster Unionist Assembly Party and a year later in 2005, he was elected Leader of the Ulster Unionist Party.
Sir Reg is married to Stella and they have two children - Julie-Anne and Christopher.