ICI finance director dies

Chemicals and Dulux paint group ICI said today its finance director had collapsed and died in the United States.

Tim Scott was on a business trip to New York on Friday when he was taken ill with a sudden and severe heart condition, the company said.

The 43-year-old, who worked for ICI since 1997 and was finance director for the past four years, leaves a wife and two sons.

In a statement, ICI said: “He will be greatly missed by his friends and colleagues at ICI and our sympathy and thoughts are with Tim’s family at this sad time.”

Mr Scott graduated from St Catherine’s College, Oxford with a degree in chemistry and forged his early career at consumer goods giant Unilever.

During the six years after joining Unilever in 1983, he worked in many of its businesses in the UK, United States and the Netherlands in a range of financial positions.

In 1989, he joined the UK-based mergers and acquisitions department of Unilever and three years later moved to Unichema in the Netherlands, becoming the group’s vice-president for Europe in 1995.

He joined ICI in 1997 following its purchase of the speciality chemicals businesses from Unilever and was promoted to the role of vice-president for strategy and performance.

In addition to his role as finance director, Mr Scott was chairman of the ICI Charity Trust and Appeals Committee and was a member of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants.

ICI employs more than 35,000 people worldwide. ICI Dulux Paints Ireland employs about 150 people.