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Monika appoints new UK Managing Director

April 8th , 2015 by

High-profile industry executive unveiled to help lead company forward

The Chairman of CESA, Simon Frost, is to join Monika as Managing Director of its UK operations. He will assume his new role at the helm of the food safety monitoring solutions provider in May.

Frost has spent his entire career in the foodservice industry and intends to use his 25 years of accumulated experience to develop sales strategies and provide strong leadership for the Leicestershire-based hi-tech company.

He started out in the field as a foodservice engineer, working his way up to become National Sales Manager of Falcon, the largest manufacturer of prime cooking equipment in the UK. In 2005, Frost was recruited to become UK Sales Director of Enodis, a major international catering equipment manufacturer, where he was a member of the UK board and helped grow the business over 10% annually until he left in 2012. By then, it had become part of Manitowoc, a major US conglomerate. Since 2012, he has been successfully developing the UK presence of Wexiodisk, a Swedish ware-washing manufacturer owned by the Italian Ali Group.

Frost is widely recognised and respected within the foodservice industry and has been a Council Member of national trade body CESA, the Catering Equipment Suppliers Association, for the past four years. During this time, he successfully developed and launched in the UK the originally American ‘Certified Foodservice Professional’ qualification – an accreditation that has since been achieved by over 100 sales executives in the foodservice industry.

Frost became chairman of CESA in November 2014. He has no plans to end his involvement with the organisation at the end of the two-year tenure.

Speaking about his new role, Frost said: “This appointment presents a wonderful opportunity for me to become part of an already fantastically successful business. I’m looking forward to not only promoting and developing Monika’s total food safety solution – created by combining its PathFinder wireless temperature monitoring system with the TaskMinder wireless task monitoring and hand probing system – but also expanding and developing the plant performance monitoring aspects of the company’s solutions. In particular, I’ll be expecting to leverage my in-depth understanding of customer needs for controlling costs such as maintenance and energy usage.”

The high-profile appointment is the cornerstone of a scheduled succession plan, which will see company founder and present Managing Director Tim Gamble becoming Executive Chairman. Although he is stepping back from the UK business, Gamble will continue to be directly responsible for Monika’s international operations, including the Middle East and Australia.

Commenting on the appointment, Tim Gamble said: “I’m delighted that Simon has agreed to join us. He is someone I have known personally for many years. He is not just a suitable successor for me, but also a great guy – a respected industry figure who I know has all the personal attributes and business experience needed to drive our company forward.”

He added: “Over the past 23 years, I have been supported by excellent people in building a service-oriented, customer-facing business that offers the latest in cutting-edge, world-leading technology. Simon is inheriting a great management team, a strong product portfolio and a blue chip customer base – and I know he is the right person to capitalise on the opportunity this presents. In my own role as Executive Chairman, I will be able to provide the ongoing continuity such a change requires, while turning more of my attention to the massive opportunities available in the Middle East, Australia and other world markets.”

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