Steve Frost (Geography, 1995)
Steve read Geography here at Hertford, and has gone on to a career of campaigning for diversity and inclusivity as core values for big corporations – and, not least, the 2012 London Olympics.
I am still a young 39 year old (the big 4-0 is months away). And I am fortunate to love what I do: the short version is I embed human rights in corporate decision making to actually improve decisions. We try to de-bias systems and processes by challenging how groups think, tackling blindspots and implementing nudges. The long answer can be found at www.frostincluded.com. We call it diversity and inclusion or inclusive leadership, and it has never been more important – what was once a niche interest is now front-page news.
One of my career highlights to date was a scary moment but also one of my proudest. I was invited to train the fifty captains of the fifty ships in the Royal Navy on diversity and inclusion. The ban on LGBT personnel serving had been overturned in 2000, but the culture lagged behind the law. As I faced fifty intimidating souls in HMS Ark Royal’s mess room, all cross-armed and staring intently, I was aware I had been given 20 minutes. In fact, the session lasted almost three hours and some of those captains are clients, colleagues and friends to this day.
People to this day slightly mock me for my choice of geography as a subject (isn’t it all colouring in and capital cities etc?) but in fact I loved it as a discipline – to learn more about the world and develop ways of thinking about it and trying to comprehend it. It’s stood me in good stead, not least with the current changes a la Brexit and Trump and its direct relevance to my professional work today. I still use key concepts such as “time, space, scale” and have fond memories of my tutors, fellow students and of course the Hertford Gilbert society.
And consequently, my love of travel is definitely correlated with my love of geography. At Hertford I undertook my dissertation with three fellow students in Tanzania. We were analysing the gender impact of World Bank economic policy on coffee farmers. Since then, my work has taken me to all continents and manner of places including diversity and inclusion in Saudi Arabia!
I am inspired by making a difference. Of course that’s easy to say but I mean it. Hertford gave me a wonderful foundation of intellectual rigour and kind community. Now, I actively seek out smart people who care. I’ve employed a gang of such folk in my company and I actively seek clients and colleagues of such ilk. We have so much work to do.
It’s important to be yourself, surround yourself with people who will let you be you and work hard doing something you love. Hertford’s a great place to start that journey.