Arnold Montague Alfred (21 March 1925 – 26 July 2011), known as Montague Alfred or Monty Alfred, was a British businessman and civil servant. Born in

Surrey Surrey () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South East England, bordering Greater London to the south west. Surrey has a large rural area, and several significant urban areas which form part of the Greater London Built-up Area. ...

on 21 March 1925, Alfred was the son of a Russian émigré who ran a series of business ventures (not always successfully). He was evacuated to

Norfolk Norfolk () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in East Anglia in England. It borders Lincolnshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the west and south-west, and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the No ...

and Lancaster as a child. He attended

Imperial College London Imperial College London (legally Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine) is a public research university in London, United Kingdom. Its history began with Prince Albert, consort of Queen Victoria, who developed his vision for a cu ...

and the

London School of Economics , mottoeng = To understand the causes of things , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £240.8 million (2021) , budget = £391.1 millio ...

, before serving as head of economics at

Courtaulds Courtaulds was a United Kingdom-based manufacturer of fabric, clothing, artificial fibres, and chemicals. It was established in 1794 and became the world's leading man-made fibre production company before being broken up in 1990 into Courtaulds ...

from 1953 to 1969. In 1969, he was appointed director of planning at the British Printing Corporation and in 1971"Alfred, (Arnold) Montague"
'' Who Was Who'' (online ed.,

Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print books ...

, 2021). Retrieved 25 January 2022. became chairman of its publishing division. He restructured it and was involved in establishing Usborne. After leaving in 1981, he was appointed Chief Executive of the

Property Services Agency The Property Services Agency (PSA) was an agency of the United Kingdom government, in existence from 1972 to 1993. Its role was to “provide, manage, maintain, and furnish the property used by the government, including defence establishments, offi ...

and Second

Permanent Secretary A permanent secretary (also known as a principal secretary) is the most senior Civil Service (United Kingdom), civil servant of a department or Ministry (government department), ministry charged with running the department or ministry's day-to-day ...

at the

Department of the Environment An environmental ministry is a national or subnational government agency politically responsible for the environment and/or natural resources. Various other names are commonly used to identify such agencies, such as Ministry of the Environment, ...

in 1982, serving until 1984. He was tasked with reforming the PSA and introducing ideas from the

private sector The private sector is the part of the economy, sometimes referred to as the citizen sector, which is owned by private groups, usually as a means of establishment for profit or non profit, rather than being owned by the government. Employment The ...

, but met with opposition from civil servants and resigned after being accused of complacency when dealing with corruption within the PSA (he refused to guarantee to parliament that corrupt practices would not recur in the PSA, which had over 400 local offices and dealt with 2.5 million contracts a year). He then set up his own publisher, Regimental Press, and worked for the Chinese businessman Au Bak Ling. He was chairman of two London

synagogue A synagogue, ', 'house of assembly', or ', "house of prayer"; Yiddish: ''shul'', Ladino: or ' (from synagogue); or ', "community". sometimes referred to as shul, and interchangeably used with the word temple, is a Jewish house of worshi ...

s and of the Union of Liberal and Progressive Judaism and the Ideology and Theology Think Tank. He died on 26 July 2011."Monty Alfred", ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...

'' (London), 26 August 2011, p. 69. .

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Alfred, Monty 1925 births 2011 deaths British civil servants Alumni of Imperial College London Alumni of the London School of Economics Civil servants in the Property Services Agency