Yolanta Gill

CEO, European Electronique

What has been your business highlight of 2022?

It has been a very busy year with a lot of interesting and challenging projects. The project highlight which stretched our expertise beyond our traditional technical skills was work we undertook at Oxford Brookes University, connecting different campuses by providing a fibre ring around the university. We partnered with a specialist who used a pneumatically driven machine known as an Impact Mole to create a channel to run the fibre under the main road (without stopping the traffic!) around trees with preservation orders and university property and so on, all witnessed and overseen by the relevant authorities. The undertaking was a huge success, carried out as part of perimeter firewall and campus connectivity and networking projects delivered with Fortinet and Aruba equipment.

If you were ruler of your own country, what law would you introduce first?

This was tricky so I put it out to those in the office and most of the replies weren't printable. Those that were ranged from three-day working week to no socks with sandals, so I gave up. For the avoidance of doubt, we will not be adopting the three-day working week policy!

Which channel or tech leader (outside of your own company) has impressed you most in 2022?

Elon Musk would be my choice again.

If you had a warning label, what would it say?

It depends what kind of day it is! If it's a bad day, it would be: "Approach at your peril!"

What was your first job?

While studying law my first job was a junior legal clerk in barristers' chambers. This meant I also spent a lot of time in the courts witnessing a spectrum of cases, from interesting and shocking to boring.

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

Silverview by John Le Carre, and Vaxxers. Both were good in very different ways, one factual describing the challenges faced by Sarah Gilbert and Catherine Green while developing the vaccine against an unknown pathogen, and the other one fictional, being the last book by John Le Carre, finished by his son after his death, a standalone spy story and a good read.

What's the most important lesson you've learned from another business leader or mentor?

Trust your judgement and do the right thing.

Who would play you in a movie of your life?

If there was such a movie made, I would be very intrigued as to who would be chosen, as I have no idea. Again, I put this out to a vote in the office and those contributing are no longer with us!