A Brief Encounter with ... Heather Hilder

 

Q. What’s your biggest career achievement to date?
A. To be still standing.

 

Q. What do you enjoy most about your job?
A. The variety of tasks, people I meet and the opportunities which I’m presented with  

 

Q. What do you least like about your job? 
A. The endless administration and red tape on behalf of HM Gov

 

Q. What motivates you?
A. Woman power – the working as a team thing

 

Q. What was your first job?
A. Waitressing in a Rottingdean restaurant called ‘The Coach House’ run by Susan Wilding – I think she was linked to the actor Richard Wilding.

 

Q. Which business man or woman do you most admire?
A. If you mean well known business man - Richard Branson and Gerald Ronson (excluding the Guinness Affair).

 

Q. Which is more important: what you know or who you know?

A. What you know – and the rest follows

 

Q. What is your favourite holiday destination and why?
A. I don’t think I’ve been there yet!

 

Q. Describe how you spend a typical weekend off?
A. Golf, tennis, or golf and tennis.

 

Q. What made you want to get into the development industry?
A. Where needs must …

 

Q. What drives you in your job?
A. The need to succeed

 

Q. How long have you been in the industry?
A. Too long sometimes

 

Q. Favourite food?
A. Anything as long as it’s tasty

 

Q. What’s more important, work or play?
A. Neither or both – you need a good balance

 

Q. What was the last book you read?
A. ‘On Leadership’ by Alan Leighton, ‘Affluenza’ by Oliver James, and ‘Sharpe’ by Bernard Cornwell – yes, all three at once.

 

Q. Where do you see yourself in 10 years time?
A. On a foreign golf course, still learning the meaning of life ...

 

Q. What are you goals and aspirations?
A. To embrace all that life throws at me and still come up smiling

 

Q. What did you want to be when you were growing up?
A. A teacher

 

Q. What subjects did you enjoy most at school?
A. Sport and languages

 

Q. Who has been the most influential person in your life?
A. Too many to mention - but they’ll know who they are and I’ve met them through work, rest and play 

 

Q. What has been your biggest regret?
A. Not learning to ‘seize the day’ at a young enough age

 

Q. What has been your most defining moment?
A. Turning 50, still feeling 18, but wanting to be about 35 …

 

Q. What would you most like to be remembered by?
A.My enthusiasm for life

 

Q. Which celebrity guests would you invite to a dinner party?
A.Sean Bean, Sir Cliff Richard, Gethin Jones, Celine Dion, Lesley Garrett and Darcy Bussell – would they all get on though?

 

Q. What music do you listen to?
A. Anything on BBC Radio 2, except Jonathon Ross

 

Q. What do you think of reality shows like the Apprentice?
A. Good for a laugh