V3 Hot Seat: Dr Louise Bennett, chair of BCS Security and director at consultants Vivas

Dr Louise Bennett is currently director at risk management consultants Vivas and chair of the BCS Security Group.

Dr Bennett had an initial career as a government scientist working on locust plague dynamics in Africa for seven years, before moving onto operations analysis and aircraft cockpit design at the Royal Aircraft Establishment. In the late 1980s, she moved into the private sector as an IT Director.

Over the past 20 years, she has worked at board level in both the private sector, including stints at Thorn EMI and Logica, and the public sector. Dr Bennett has also worked on various government advisory bodies, including the Police IT Organisation.

Dr Bennett's Hot Seat follows those from Steve Watt, St Andrews University chief information officer, Ocado director of technology Paul Clarke, and General Electric global technology director William Ruh.

V3: What would be your dream job?

Dr Louise Bennett: I was originally a geographer and zoologist, so I would love to have had David Attenborough’s job and have spent my life travelling the world making those fantastic programmes.

Which mobile phone and tablet do you currently use?

A BlackBerry Torch and a Lenovo ThinkPad. I am waiting for the Surface Pro to bring out a version with a decent battery life, so I can move to something lighter, but still have all the great pen features.

Which technology has had the biggest impact on your working life?

Satellites. I was the first UK scientist to use the output of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) satellites for agricultural and weather monitoring. It revolutionised those activities. Now it enables me to drive the car to my destination faultlessly, without worrying about reliance on map reading when alone in a moving car. Satellites are a key part of the infrastructure for ICT and with GPS are enabling a whole raft of new analytics.

What’s been the highlight of your career so far?

Writing the software for the first air combat simulators at the Royal Aircraft Establishment and actually getting them to work, so that we could conduct a great raft of experiments to improve the man-machine interface in aircraft.

What was your first job?

Beyond summer jobs, it was forecasting locust plagues in Africa.

What’s your favourite thing about working in the IT industry?

The enormous variety of opportunities.

What will be the next big innovation of the coming years?

Personalised healthcare, from genetically specific products and treatments, to remote monitoring and treatment of chronic conditions like diabetes and remote monitoring for the elderly to enable them to remain safely at home.

What keeps you awake at night?

Nothing. I sleep like a log.

What was the last book you read and was it any good?

The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver. It is much, much too long, but really gripping. I felt daunted even starting it until the summer, when I felt I might find time to read all 800-plus pages. Perhaps because it is so slow, I have numerous vivid images from it in my mind. It inspired me to go to the Royal Academy exhibition about Mexico, A Revolution in Art, as that also featured Diego Rivera, Frida Kahlo and the other artists of that era, who were central to the book and I was not familiar with them. It was wonderful to see photographs and paintings of all the characters and places in the book.

Who is your favourite band or musician?

On the whole I like the sound of silence! But if I listen to anything it is 1960s pop and my favourite song is Procol Harum’s A Whiter Shade of Pale.

Where’s your favourite place for escape?

Paphos in Cyprus, because the pace is slow, the people are so nice, and the food, climate and scenery are lovely.

E-readers or real books?

Real books, every time.

The Beatles or The Rolling Stones?

The Beatles, but it is a close thing.

Favourite film?

A Town Like Alice.

Windows or Mac OS?

I started with Mac, but got really irritated by the lack of compatibility with Windows, which has always been used by everyone else in my work environment. So now I am a Windows convert and will never go back to something that locks you into one vendor, like the way Apple does with the Mac.