Managerial merry-go-round

Lord Frost, who only started work as director-general of the Institute of Economic Affairs two months ago, has resigned, citing “personal commitments”.

Since Mark Littlewood stood down from the role in November 2023, having held the position for 14 years, the IEA has appointed two new DGs and will now have to search for a third.

To put this in perspective, prior to Mark (2009-2023) there were only three permanent directors before him: Ralph Harris (1957–1988), Graham Mather (1988–1993), and John Blundell (1993–2009).

Now, I know how this will appear (wise in hindsight, which is never a good look), but I genuinely wrote the passage below after attending a leaving party for Reem Ibrahim, the IEA’s former head of media, in January.

The published post, which was intended as a tribute to Reem, appeared two weeks later and my intention was to include a postscript about Lord Frost, who was a guest at the event, but I thought better of it because I didn’t want to associate Reem with any trouble that might be brewing.

Also, given Forest’s long association with the IEA (mostly through Lord Harris), I didn’t want to add to any ongoing gossip. Consequently I neither completed nor published the postscript. Given today’s news, however, I don’t feel so reticent, so here it is, still in its draft form:

Talking of the IEA, I was a bit surprised when Lord Frost was parachuted in to replace Tom Clougherty (himself the replacement for Mark Littlewood) as director-general of Britain’s oldest free market think tank.

I’m told this was the third time Frost had been in contention for the job, and his appointment is certainly a bold move for the IEA which has faced several challenges in recent years.

Tom Clougherty’s appointment, in 2023, appeared to be a deliberate attempt to step back from Mark Littlewood’s more abrasive style of leadership which, to be fair, had been extremely successful in raising the IEA’s profile and influence.

I don’t know Lord Frost but I did meet him very briefly at one of Reem’s leaving parties. I was chatting to Andrew Rosindell, the former Conservative MP who has defected to Reform, when Frost joined us to say hello to Rosindell.

I reminded him that he had been very critical of Kemi Badenoch in a series of posts on social media last year (which he didn’t deny) so it wasn’t a surprise when I read, last week, that he (Frost) hadn’t ruled out joining Reform.

I can imagine, though, that the prospect of their newly appointed DG joining Reform in what would be a high profile defection from the Conservatives would have alarmed some IEA trustees.

Whether an imminent defection to Reform is indeed the “personal commitments” Lord Frost is coyly referring to remains to be seen, but it wouldn’t surprise me, put it that way.

Meanwhile the IEA is looking for its THIRD director-general in little over two years, which is football management or prime minister territory. Extraordinary.

See: Lord Frost: I’d never rule out joining Reform and Lord Frost steps down as director-general (Guido Fawkes)