George Dawson, who has died aged 45 after a short illness, had been a Democratic Unionist member of the Northern Ireland assembly for East Antrim for four years. He was seen as a potential member of the power-sharing executive of the new first minister, the DUP leader Ian Paisley, whose evangelical Protestant and strong unionist beliefs he shared. 

Since 1998, Dawson, one of a new breed of outward-looking DUP businessmen, had been director of Arena Network NI, which coordinates business environmental initiatives in Northern Ireland. In recent months he had been active in formulating DUP energy and economic policies. He was his party’s spokesman on the economic development forum and the advisory council for infrastructure investment, both groups with a close interest in rebuilding Northern Ireland’s economy and helping it to benefit from EU involvement.

His recent speeches in the assembly, where he was active, showed him as eager to reap economic benefit from the peace process and from cross-border links – but equally cautious about protecting Belfast’s interests against encroachment from Dublin. Reflecting the DUP’s working-class roots, he was a strong promoter of better education for both the young and those in work. He was chairman of the Riada Credit Union and had helped found other such organisations.

Born in Lurgan, County Antrim, Dawson was educated at Ballymena academy and Queen’s University Belfast, from where he graduated in English and modern history in 1983. It was at university in 1979 that he became an active member of the DUP, a party his father helped found.

His first senior post in industry was as manufacturing director of Coats Viyella clothing, from 1990 until he went to Arena. He was chairman of the Caleb Foundation, concerned with the development of social housing, and an offshoot of the Evangelical Protestant Society, of which he was a director. He was also an economic adviser to the DUP European parliament member, Jim Allister, and a respected broadcaster, particularly on religious affairs for Ulster Television.

As Imperial Grand Master of the Independent Loyal Orange Institution, Dawson had been involved in negotiations to find alternative routes for Orange parades that would avoid the bitter clashes of the past. He had also been involved recently in unsuccessfully resisting the introduction in Northern Ireland of the Equal Opportunities (Sexual Orientation Regulations) Act to promote equality of access for gay people. He said that as a Christian, he opposed the liberalisation because it curtailed Protestant religious freedom. He is survived by his wife, Vi, and daughters Emma and Sara.

George Dawson, politician and businessman, born May 10 1961; died May 7 2007

Quoted from his Obituary, The Guardian, London,  9 May 2007