People profile

Chris Eaton, CEO, The ILS Group in the Isle of Man

The CEO of The ILS Group, Chris Eaton, is based at the company’s headquarters in the Isle of Man. He is responsible for overseeing the group’s global activities, including implementation of the corporate strategy and vision. Eaton has extensive background in the business and finance industry. He is a leading authority and a specialist commentator on a range of topics in financial services in the international financial services sector. 

He attended Birmingham University, where he graduated with an Upper Second Class Honours LLB (Hons) Law degree in 1984. Eaton joined Jordans on graduating in 1984. He was based in London as part of the ready made UK company team. By 1987 he had received promotion to manage the domestic incorporations of the Jordans office in London before being further promoted to run the Jordans international desk in London. 

In 1987 Eaton was asked to establish a new office by Jordans in Gibraltar selling Jordans traditional services and products to the Gibraltarian professional market. As managing director of the office, he ran a Gibraltarian portfolio of companies for Jordans’ international clients. 

In 1990 he took up a new role as managing director of Jordans Isle of Man where he was asked to manage the Isle of Man office on a temporary basis. While in the Isle of Man, in 1991, he was offered the opportunity to set up a new corporate service business by the name of ILS. Initially, this was a two man office and a stand alone operation in the Isle of Man. 

Over the last 17 years, ILS has now become a wide ranging group of corporate and trust service providers with its own offices in BVI, China, Dubai, Hong Kong, Isle of Man, London, Portugal, Switzerland, Turkey and Uruguay. It has a client base which consists of 80% professional intermediaries, such as lawyers and accountants and 20% who are private individuals. 

The group holds two category one corporate service provider licences in the Isle of Man, a general trust licence in the BVI, is DIFC registered in Dubai, ARIF regulated in Geneva and registered in the UK. 

He has been a member of several professional associations, formerly a committee member of the Association of Trust & Company Managers in Gibraltar; he was also a founder director of the Association of Corporation Service Providers in the Isle of Man, where he served as a director for eight years, two of which were as Chairman. He is currently a member of the Institute of Directors, the International Tax Planning Association and the Offshore Institute and has recently become a chartered director. 

He is an approved director, four-eyes, and owner of two entities holding category one corporate service providers licence by the Isle of Man Financial Supervision Commission and as director and owner of an entity holding a general trust licence from the BVI Financial Supervision Commission. In addition, he is approved as a director of a protected cell company by the Isle of Man Insurance and Pensions Authority. 

Beyond his day to day duties, Eaton has collated and delivered courses on company administration and practice, including the role of the company director in theory and in practice, in the Isle of Man, UK, Jersey, Guernsey and Gibraltar and has spoken at conferences and courses on trust and corporate matters in the US, South Africa, Brazil, Switzerland and Spain.