Michael Dempsey: Managing director of Bristol-Myers Squibb, president of Irish Pharmaceutical Healthcare Association.
What figure from the world of health/medicine do you most admire?
Noel Browne and Micheal Martin - they challenge the status quo.
What alternative career might you have chosen?
Politics.
If you were appointed Minister for Health what would be your first priority?
To energise, motivate and create a vision and challenge people to change.
Do you have a phobia / what is your greatest fear?
My greatest fear is of anything bad happening to my children.
Have you ever been a patient and were you a good one?
Yes I was a patient and was told by the nurses I was a "wuss" - I still don't know what that means!
What three books would you bring to a desert island?
Irish Figuratives by Susan Stairs; Truman by David McCullough and Not Against the Dairy Door by Billy Rackard.
Have you a fail-safe method of dealing with stress?
Visiting a church and doing the stations of the cross always works for me.
What is your favourite TV or radio programme?
Not a great TV watcher - I enjoy Prime Time and sports reports. Also enjoy David Hanly's programme on radio on Saturday evenings.
If you did not live in Ireland where would you choose to spend the rest of your life?
Cape Town, South Africa.
Summarise yourself in 12 words?
Team-player, likes to win, kind, scattered, sincere, loyal, impatient, issue focused, direct, honest, supportive, driven.
Do you use alternative medicine/ therapies?
Rarely.
Who or what makes you laugh?
Walter Matthau, Tommy Cooper, Jack Lemon and Tom Dempsey (no relation).