BusinessCar’s Paul Barker puts 13 testing questions to another victim

1. What was your first job? My first ‘proper’ job was with Renault UK. I joined on the graduate programme in 1988.

2. What was your first company car? A glorious, white 1.2-litre Renault 5TL.

3. What did you listen to on your last car journey? I tend to keep the radio tuned to Radio 5 Live, so it was probably Nicky Campbell.

4. What one thing do you wish you could do better? Just one?! I would love to be a decent standard of cricketer.

5. What’s your biggest achievement? Although I’m a pretty poor sportsman in the real world, I am a star of the fantasy sports world. A couple of years ago, I finished second (in the world) in AOL fantasy football and this year ‘Heirons Hammers’ made the top 10 in the Daily Telegraph Fantasy Cricket.

6. Who are your role models? As a boy I looked up to the likes of Ian Botham.

I admire Winston Churchill and have the utmost respect for anyone who is prepared to go into battle – whether it’s Waterloo, the Somme or Helmand.

7. What’s the stupidest thing you’ve done? There are many to choose from. From a ‘parachute jump’ from a first-floor window clutching a bedsheet aged six, to last week, regaling another dinner guest with tales from an Amsterdam boys’ weekend many years ago. I wish someone had told me he was head of the CID.

8. What was the most hotly debated topic at your last meeting? At a recent SMMT working group there was plenty of discussion about roaming or ‘follow me’ tariffs. Interesting stuff (to some of us at least).

9. What’s in your garage? Lots of rubbish, the usual selection of broken garden tools, a mower and an old Vauxhall Astra belonging to my parents-in-law who are currently working their way through our inheritance travelling around Singapore and Australia.

10. What’s the worst thing about your job? PowerPoint – the answer to everything seems to be a 30-plus slide presentation.

11. What one law would you make or change? Legislation requiring Eastenders scriptwriters to make at least 50% of plot lines happy and uplifting.

12. What keeps you awake at night? The noise of some small rodents that seem to be colonising our loft at the moment.

13. Who is your ideal celebrity date? It’d have to be a night out with Keira Knightly.