Eithne Boyan: Managing director, Lundbeck Ireland.
Personal/family: Married to Donal Harte.
What figure from the world of medicine/health do you most admire?
Noel Browne for his unbending personal integrity. He was a voice for humane and decent values in Irish life, as reflected in his work with the Mother and Child Scheme of 1951.
What other career might you have chosen?
I qualified as a general nurse and midwife and also a secondary school teacher before studying marketing and entering the business world. I have an MBA, so a future opportunity might be to combine my business experience and qualifications with the teaching qualification. However, I do love my present job.
If you were appointed Minister for Health, what would be your first priority?
Identify the black hole that is absorbing the financial investment in health and invest the savings in psychiatry and primary care, keeping structures simple and reducing administration and bureaucracy. I would support research-based pharmaceutical companies, which are the engines of innovation and have discovered and brought 90 per cent of all new medicines to patients during the last 20 years. Newer medicines result in improved life expectancy and quality of life, reducing time spent in hospital, less time off work and less sick pay. The search continues for cures for diseases such as Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease, osteoporosis, which cost global society trillions of euros, not to mention the pain and suffering.
Do you have a phobia/what is your greatest fear?
I hate heights and my greatest fear would be anything that would harm my family.
Have you ever been a patient and were you a good one?
I fractured the fibula bone in my right leg. I was hopeless on crutches and most impatient.
What three books would you bring to a desert island?
Michael Palin's Hemingway Adventure, Shackleton's Way by Margot Morrell and Stephanie Capparell, The Scramble for Africa by Thomas Pakenham - hard to believe that in 1880 most of that continent was still ruled by Africans and that by 1902 five European powers had grabbed almost the whole continent, not to mention what has occurred over the last 100 years.
Have you a fail-safe method for dealing with stress?
Exercise in general but horse riding in particular - one has to focus 100 per cent so all else is forgotten. I ride at an equestrian centre, and am a member of a riding club there, this way I meet people from all walks of life and have great fun.
What is your favourite TV or radio programme?
I love Morning Ireland but I like to start work early so I miss most of it, I also love Prime Time Investigates, ER and The West Wing.
If you did not live in Ireland, where would you choose to spend the rest of your life?
Spain, I worked there for two years and return at every opportunity.
Summarise yourself in 12 words.
Resilient, positive, driven, sensitive, tough yet kind, fair, very competitive, strong integrity, can be impatient, treats people with respect and leads as an equal.
Do you use alternative medicine/therapies?
No, if I needed medication I would want an approved conventional medicine.
Who or what makes you laugh?
Ardal O'Hanlon and the Blackadder series.