Five minutes with: AET's David Hill

What are you thinking right now?

We have just closed our first quarter and are pleased with the take up of the risk plan for 2014, but a need always arises to prioritise between current and future issues, so plenty remains to be done this year. 

Looking outside the company, and in common with many risk managers, the tragedies for the lost airliner, the passenger ferry and the severe weather, including the UK floods, have sharpened the focus on the potential impact from the ‘totally unexpected’. 

Beyond those events, sanctions, annexations, warnings of
pandemics – MERS, dengue, ebola – and even more product recalls of phenomenal scale reinforce the need to prepare for the worst case; controls are repeatedly proven to be fallible and demand review, testing and effort towards continuous improvement. That is a lot to be thinking about, looking at events from the past few months alone.

What is your most treasured possession?

I can’t say that I have or crave particularly grand possessions, but I do treasure a couple of old classic motorcycles that were already old when I laid them up 20 years ago after many hard miles. They are owed a
re-restoration and, I will shamelessly admit, some fair weather only outings to follow.

Who is your greatest hero? 

It is impossible for me to be definitive on my single greatest hero, but I am awed by the achievements of the pioneers of the industrial age. So much is attributable to Isaac Newton, Robert Boyle and James Watt to name a few, but Isambard Kingdom Brunel demonstrated incredible practicality and innovation in design as well as leadership too to get his concepts implemented.

What is your greatest fear?

Uncertainty – in the widest interpretation, not only the risk analyst’s perspective. If the threat is known and visible, it is generally possible to control or mitigate it, so I am basically saying the ‘unknown-unknowns’. 

Tell us a secret?

I am a closet techie and would-be inventor, very much in a hobby capacity. To be honest I will not be patenting or even publishing my latest automated chicken coop design. Ultimately, the main upside risk favours the fox! My original qualification and early career were in engineering, so these hobbies provide an outlet for my ‘inner engineer’.

What makes you happy?

Family and particularly parental pride in my two children. Beyond this, I am a keen runner and swimmer and enter occasional triathlons and other competitions. 

I have a second and long−standing enthusiasm for fine food and wine. These seemingly opposing pastimes probably represent my most effective and pleasing hedging strategy so far. SR

David Hill, head of risk management, quality and assurance at AET UK