A Manxman by birth, and therefore now in a minority in the Isle of Man, John was educated locally but got his degree in Accounting and Finance at Nottingham Trent University, graduating in 1981. He then joined what was then the largest firm of chartered accountants in the Isle of Man. Starting in audit John was chosen to strengthen the tax function and began to specialise in tax in 1983. He became pa to the senior tax partner and qualified as a chartered accountant 1984.

In 1986 John joined Crowe Clark Whitehill (then Clark Whitehill), still a fledgling office having opened in 1983, and moved back into accounting. However he soon assumed responsibility for the tax function and became a partner in 1989. Solely responsible for tax matters until 1989 when Evelyn Corrin joined, he stepped sideways to develop and run the offshore services arm, where he is managing director. This involves a lot of, principally UK, trust work as well as corporate work for clients around the globe. With several hundred trust and corporate appointments the responsibilities can be demanding! In addition John is in charge of IT and finance matters for the whole office.

Outside work John is honorary treasurer for Age Concern Isle of Man, one of the Islands’ biggest charities. In addition he claims to be the only man he (or anybody else for that matter) knows who has written off an Aston Martin and his other interests include a season ticket to Goodison Park and his drum kit.