Frank Steer MBE

Brigadier (retired) Frank Steer was a military logistician with 34 years experience worldwide supplying troops on operations. Educated at St Ignatius College, North London, Frank was commissioned into the Royal Army Ordnance Corps in 1966. He served in a wide range of operational staff and logistic appointments throughout the world. Closely involved in mounting the Falklands War, he was the GI/G4 for the British Force in Beirut (1983), Commander Supply in Berlin (1987-1989) and Commander Supply in the Gulf War (1991). Frank was appointed a Member of the British Empire for service in Beirut in 1984.

After retiring from the British Army in 1999, Frank became Director General of the Institute of Quality Assurance in November 1999. Frank was responsible for many effective changes but by far his greatest achievement was securing the grant of a Royal Charter in 2006, so that it became the Chartered Quality Institute. For seven years Frank successfully headed the UK's only professional institute for the qualification of individuals in the use and application of the full range of quality management systems throughout the breadth of organisations and the full depth of management.  He retired from the Chartered Quality Institute in May 2007.

Frank was President of the European Organisation for Quality from 2002 to 2004, and was a member of the Advisory Board to the International Society of Logistics. He is a Fellow of the Chartered Quality Institute, the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply and the Institute of Logistics and Transport. He was also a Member of the City and Guilds Institute.

Frank lectured internationally on leadership, quality, logistics and military history and was acknowledged as a first class facilitator and leader of workshops and seminars. He led tours of the battlefields at Waterloo and Arnhem and perfected a course taking business executives around the field of Waterloo to evaluate the difference modern management techniques might have made to the outcome of the battle.

An author, Frank's first three published works are connected with the Battle of Arnhem. His other books are the history of the Royal Army Ordnance Corps from 1918 to 1993 and a novel set in the first ten months of the First World War, and a book on the battle of Waterloo.  See Books for further information. During his military service Frank was the author of a number of works on logistics, particularly in a coalition context and involving the UN. He also wrote a major Ministry of Defence study into sustainability.

Frank is a Trustee of the Royal Logistic Corps museum, which the Princess Royal opened on 8 May 2003 - the website is on the Useful Links page.  He is also a member of the Royal Army Ordnance Corps Council.

Frank has been married to Virginia for 41 years, has 5 children and 7 grandchildren and lives in Kent.