Dr Louise Bennett had an initial career as a Government scientist in overseas aid, working on meteorological research and locust plague dynamics in Africa for seven years.  She then moved to the Ministry of Defence, first as an operations analyst then in aircraft cockpit and air-to-air missile design at the Royal Aircraft Establishment. 

In the late 1980’s she moved into the private sector as an IT Director.  Over the last twenty years she has worked at board level in both the private sector (Thorn EMI, Logica, AEA Technology, vivas) and public sectors.  She has worked on various government advisory bodies (including the Police IT Organisation as a non-executive director and Defence Scientific Advisory Council for 16 years). 

In her current consulting work she focuses on all aspects of strategic and corporate governance, particularly the exploitation of new technology and risk management.  Her latest work includes how to develop resilient organisations, both from an overall environmental and security perspective and from the perspective of information assurance, including fraud prevention.  She is a Government Gateway Reviewer, examining major government expenditure projects, particularly involving information technology.  She is an expert assessor for the European Commission research programmes in environmental ICT and Security.   

She is currently Chairman of the BCS Security Forum Strategic Panel and a member of their Government Relations Group.