Lawrence Guest

Although Lawrence Guest attracted attention as a 16-year-old schoolboy, when he was cox to the Great Britain fours that finished in fourth place at the Helsinki Olympics, he later became well known as the financial director of IPC (International Publishing Company).

Guest was an accountant by profession, working largely in the publishing business with the likes of Odhams Press and Reed International, and in 1977 he became financial director at Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN), later owned by Robert Maxwell. Guest went on to become the financial director of IPC (International Publishing Company). IPC was owned by Maxwell who subsequently borrowed from the Mirror Group’s pension funds, leaving a hole of more than £400 million, which he used to prop up his own business empire.

Despite being the IPC group’s financial director, Lawrence Guest had no knowledge of Maxwell’s mis-doings, and quit his job after 15 years in 1992 in the wake of the scandal. After quitting the business, Guest bought a yacht and retired to Chichester, where he enjoyed his pastimes of sailing and playing golf.