British Virgin Islands' contact member

John has been a qualified chartered accountant for over thirty-four years, specialising in financial services in the UK and the Caribbean, originally with KPMG and more recently with RSM in the Caribbean.

John has been with the British Virgin Islands (BVI) office since 1985. John became a Partner of KPMG BVI in 1989. On 1 July 1992, John became Senior Partner and has headed up the BVI Corporate Recovery Practice, which now has a dedicated team of professional staff.

As a leading insolvency practitioner in the territory, John has been involved with all the largest domestic receiverships and liquidations in the BVI, including Air BVI, Village Cay Marina, Nanny Cay Marina and Lambert Beach Resort.

John has been appointed by the BVI High Court under the Insolvency Act, 2003 as Receiver, Liquidator and Provisional Liquidator of BVI companies involved in cross-border transactions.

John has been appointed by the BVI High Court to act jointly with insolvency practitioners from RSM in Hong Kong and Australia, as well as in the UK, involving such high profile matters as the China Tennis Open, the Australian fuel pill company Firepower and the Chinese Wahaha-Danone joint venture, all involving shareholder disputes as well as powers of investigation.

More recently, John has been appointed as liquidator over a BVI feeder fund which invested in convicted Ponzi schemer Bernard Madoff; as well as over a substantial group of BVI hedge funds set up by alleged Ponzi schemer Nikolai Battoo.

John is a graduate of Manchester University (UK) where he obtained a bachelors degree with honours in Management Sciences. John became an ICAEW Chartered Accountant in 1980 and an associate member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Jamaica in 1983.

John was a member of the Advisory Committee of The BVI International Finance Centre from its inception in 2003 until 2007, which is a government body specifically sanctioned with the task of promoting financial services in the BVI.

John was Chairman of the BVI Association of Mutual Fund Practitioners from inception until 2006. On coming into force of the Insolvency Act, 2003 in August 2004, John became one of the first people in the territory to be granted a BVI insolvency practitioner's licence in September 2004.

Most recently, John was appointed to the Payroll Tax Review Committee in July 2008, which is an ad hoc government committee specifically sanctioned with the task of recommending changes to the Payroll Taxes Act, 2004.