Tony Frost

• Law and Economics degrees, Sydney University
• Tax Lawyer and Chartered Accountant
• Master of Science in Coaching Psychology
  
• Leadership Consultant, Coach and Mentor

"After attending Our Lady of Good Counsel primary school in Forestville, Tony arrived at the College as a fifth grader in 1971. Sadly, for the College, he could neither sing nor play rugby. Although Fr Fahey sensibly declined to invite him to join the mighty College choir, Tony still had to fake it on the rugby field for a couple of seasons before the College saw the light and established soccer teams. He enjoyed soccer but was not as gifted as his younger brothers, Peter and Tim, who also attended the College. Tony was a proud member of the College Rat Club, which bred the rats required for dissection in science classes.

Tony obtained law and economics degrees from Sydney University and had a 34-year first career as a tax lawyer and Chartered Accountant. At parties, when asked what he did, Tony would smile sweetly and say that “he helped big companies pay the correct amount of tax”. After that, the conversation could go anywhere, or nowhere. In 1990, during a five-year stint working in Westpac’s in-house tax team, he started what turned into an 18-year crusade to reform the outdated tax laws relating to banking and financial transactions. After the reform legislation was enacted in 2008, he co-authored a 773-page book: Guide to Taxation of Financial Arrangements. To the best of his knowledge, this is the second dullest book ever published in the English language; after Charles Darwin’s The Origin of Species.

Following seven years as a tax partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers, Tony joined tax advisory firm Greenwoods & Freehills in 2003, and ended his first career in 2018 as the Managing Director.

Finally, sick of filling in daily time sheets, in 6-minute intervals, Tony went back to Sydney University on a full-time basis in 2019, to undertake a Master of Science in Coaching Psychology, which he loved. He launched his second career business (Frost Leadership Consulting) at the start of 2020, just as COVID-19 was arriving in Australia. He denies that the two events are related.

Tony now has a diverse and happy second career. As well as being a professional coach and mentor, working mainly in the legal and accounting sectors, he is a part-time academic at both the Australian Graduate School of Management (AGSM) at the University of NSW, and at the College of Law. At the AGSM, Tony teaches law, regulation and ethics to MBA students, while at the College of Law, he instructs lawyers in the principles of business management. “Retirement is not something I am contemplating any year soon” Tony said recently.

Tony married Catherine Andersen (Stella Maris class of 1978) in 1986 and they have two lovely daughters, Elizabeth and Laura. They initially lived in Hornsby, then the Forest area, but are now residing happily in Fairlight. Tony has set up an office in the city for his work activities and reckons he has the best commute in the world – catching the Manly ferry across Sydney Harbour." Tony Frost

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