Ice Magic Sean Feast FCICM speaks to Dewi Fox MCICM about swimming, Arctic Rolls, and the challenges of running a medium size debt collection agency. The Recognised Standard / www.cicm.com / <strong>November</strong> <strong>2018</strong> / PAGE 20
INTERVIEW AUTHOR – Sean Feast FCICM DEWI Fox is a proud Welshman, born in St Asaph which is famous for being one of the smallest cities in the UK and the birthplace of goal-scoring legend, Ian Rush. But while his Christian name betrays his welsh roots, there is little in his accent to suggest he is anything but English, a result of living in the land of St George since he was three. “My father was a career civil servant,” Dewi explains, “and worked for the Inland Revenue as a Tax Collector, maybe collections were in the genes – which is a very sad thought!” He moved around with his job to Wrexham and Chester before moving south to Kingston-upon-Thames, and so we finally ended up in Walton-on- Thames where I have been ever since.” Educated at a Sacelsian School, a Catholic State school in Chertsey, Dewi did well academically but was keener on all sports, especially swimming and playing football, reaching the National Schools Finals in the former, and playing at County level in football. “Sport was my passion,” Dewi admits. “We used to have what we called ‘Mad Wednesday’ where I would go swimming in the morning before school, then play football with the school team in the afternoon before going on to train with Wimbledon later in the day, and then finishing with another stint in the pool. By the end of it, they used to drag me out of the pool virtually half asleep.” Such diligence and commitment paid off: in the National Schools Finals in the Isle of Man he finished fourth in his chosen stroke, the backstroke. The part he remembers best, however, was the journey home: “I shared a carriage with Sharon Davies,” he smiles. FOOTBALL FOCUS With so much time needed for training and only so many hours in a day, Dewi ultimately gave up his swimming in favour of football: “Swimming is about ten percent talent and 90 percent time in the pool,” he explains. Dewi thus began to shape his days and weekends around his football, working a paper round, various Saturday jobs and playing football mid-week and Sundays. Work, Dewi says, was something that came naturally to him, and he was seldom without a job, even if he had to lie about his age to get one. Earning money was important, especially when an opportunity came to play football in Canada. “My parents were of modest means,” he says, “and so I worked to earn enough money to pay for the trip myself.” As Fifth Form gave way to the Lower Sixth, Dewi’s interest in his three chosen A Levels, Maths, Economics and Computer Science, began to wane. He applied for and was offered a place at Loughborough (“I wanted to go for the sport,” he says), but in the end he didn’t go: “Some of our Computer Science lessons were on a Monday and Friday afternoon, away from the school at Brooklands Tech College,” he explains, “but after a while a few of us stopped going and just went to the pub instead!” Scraping through his exams, and with little on the horizon other than an appetite for work, Dewi first took a summer job in a factory making arm rests for aircraft seats (“They were all much older than me and listened to Radio Two all day,” he laughs. “It used to drive me nuts.”) , while he looked for a proper job. FROZEN FOODS His last Saturday job had been working in the post room at the Head Office of Birds Eye Walls where he got to know the Computer Operators well. They encouraged him to apply for a post as a computer programmer, a role usually reserved for graduates: “I passed the aptitude test,” he says, “and they offered me a job in the IT department. It meant spending three months in operations before joining the programming team. “I was the youngest in the department by quite a few years as everyone else had been to university but it was the dream job. We had a bar on site (my boss liked a drink) and a football team, and it was only a ten-minute walk from where I lived. By the time I left, the IT department probably had something like 100 people in it, almost evenly split by those who smoked at their desks and those that didn’t (remembering this is the 1980s). Everyone went to the bar on a Friday lunchtime, and we had the benefit of a staff shop, though by the time I left I was sick of Vienetta and Arctic Rolls!” After four and a half years at Birds Eye Walls, Dewi had saved enough money to go travelling, and spent 12 months in the US, Australia, Asia and Africa. Within those 12 months he worked for six weeks and three days precisely. The six weeks was spent as a computer programmer Everyone went to the bar on a Friday lunchtime, and we had the benefit of a staff shop, though by the time I left I was sick of Vienetta and Arctic Rolls. The Recognised Standard / www.cicm.com / <strong>November</strong> <strong>2018</strong> / PAGE 21 continues on page 22 >
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