ON THE COUCH:Kieran Loughran is chief executive of Headway and chairman of Boardmatch
Family/personal:
I am married to Olive with two adopted sons - Ross and Felipe.
Which living person do you most admire and why?
Like many others I have to say Nelson Mandela for his magnanimity, graciousness and lack of bitterness for being locked up without justification for so long.
What do you regard as the top three problems facing Ireland's health system?
Running the health service is very difficult in Ireland. There is so much talk about value for money but the HSE doesn't seem to recognise value for money when it is in front of its nose. Our services provide to about 600 people, keeping many of those out of acute services, for a cost of €80 an hour . Other big problems facing the system include the fact that it is so fragmented and it badly needs leadership of its people rather than leadership of its procedures and systems.
What is your greatest extravagance?
Shirts and ties and a couple of trips to the Algarve a year.
What is your most unhealthy habit?
Chocolate. Christmas and Easter are big challenges for me.
How do you relax?
By going to the gym and watching sport.
Who would you invite to your dream dinner party?
Barack Obama, Neil Diamond, Colm McCarthy (chairman of Bord Snip Nua), Mahatma Gandhi, Podge and Rodge and my wife.
What is your idea of perfect happiness?
Inner contentment.
What trait do you most value in your friends?
Sincerity.
What talent would you most like to have?
The list is very long, but I would love to have been talented enough to have worn the red shirt for Liverpool or else for Munster.
Do you use alternative/ complementary medicines or therapies?
Thankfully I have been healthy most of my life, but I'd try them if I needed to.
What is your earliest memory?
My first day at school, hanging out of the railings screaming as my mother left.
What is your most treasured possession?
I'm not a big possession person but the things I treasure the most are my wife and two sons.
What other career might you have chosen?
This is my second career. Before this I was a director of Anglo Irish Bank. I still might consider going back to college to study philosophy.
What books or films do you believe have inspired you?
Why Should Anyone Be Led By You by Rob Goffee and Gareth Jones.
In conversation with Fiona Tyrrell
Headway is the Irish national association for acquired brain injury and Boardmatch supports the development of boards and management committees of community and voluntary sector organisations