Albert Frost
Albert Edward Frost
Early years
Albert Edward Frost was born on 7 March 1914 and educated at Oulton School in Liverpool. In his younger days, Frost was a keen swimmer and runner. A long-standing member of the Belgrave Harriers athletics club in Wimbledon, he was remembered for a battling run in deep snow in the 1947 English National Cross Country Championship, in which the club secured second place.
He studied at
Career
A tax expert by background and a master of financial detail, Frost helped streamline the management of ICI by providing a central finance function for a group whose operational structure in the postwar decades still reflected its origins in the merger of four companies in 1926.
As finance director from 1968, he faced the challenge of accounting for high levels of inflation – and took a firm stance against new accounting standards that he did not feel reflected ICI's position fairly. He also established the group's first pension fund and radically improved its financial communications, using films to explain year-end results to staff.
Having retired from ICI in 1976, Frost took on a remarkable portfolio of non-executive appointments. He was one of the first outsiders from industry to be invited on to the
He accepted the challenge in 1977, as part of a complete change of top management at BL, only on condition that "my role as chairman of the funding committee must be meaningful, and no Friday meetings". He went on to press the Labour government, rather forcefully, to inject £450 million of new capital into the group. BL's chief executive, Sir Michael Edwardes, wrote later that "the outspoken Frost is one of the most financially orientated businessmen in Britain"; complex arguments with the National Enterprise Board over the shape of BL's balance sheet were "meat and drink to him".
Frost briefed himself meticulously before board meetings, set clear objectives for himself and others, and managed his time so that none of his commitments fell by the wayside. By 1980 the restructuring of BL (boosted by a joint venture with
In the City, meanwhile, Frost was a director of
Philanthropy
Throughout his senior career, Frost always found time for music. A keen violinist who particularly enjoyed string quartets, he had been known to announce that a meeting must end promptly because he had "an appointment with
In his later years he was a member of the
He was also a driving force in establishing the Loan Fund for Musical Instruments to encourage young British string players. He assisted with the British contribution to the 1987 exhibition of
He was chairman of
Honours
He was appointed
Later years
In his nineties, though no longer able to play the violin, Albert Frost remained uncomplaining and keenly interested in current affairs. He married, in 1942, to Eugénie Maude Barlow, who died in 2008. They had no children.
References
- ^ "Albert E. Frost 1914–2010". belgraveharriers.com. Retrieved 2 August 2013.
- ^ "Albert Frost". The Telegraph. 22 September 2010. Retrieved 2 August 2013.