Our board

Conor O’Dea

Chairman, Cayman Finance

Since 1989, Mr O’Dea worked for Butterfield Bank (Cayman) Limited in various capacities. He ended his executive career with a stint as Managing Director Cayman and President & Chief Operating Officer, BNTB Group. In April 2016, he retired from executive responsibilities with Butterfield Group and assumed a non-executive role as Director of BNTB Board and Chairman of Butterfield’s Board. Throughout his career, Mr O’Dea has also served in various associate and government positions, including President at the Cayman Islands Bankers’ Association and the Chamber of Commerce.

Andrew Schofield

Partner, Head of Asset Management, KPMG

JS de Jager

Managing Director, Cayman Management Ltd.

JS de Jager is the Managing Director of Cayman Management Ltd.. Cayman Management, regulated by the Cayman Islands Monetary Authority, has been providing company management services from the Cayman Islands since 1974 and in addition to company management, Cayman Management is able to provide, through a number of its associated companies, specialised services in a number of areas including the provision of independent directors for funds, investment managers, virtual asset companies, captive insurance / reinsurance companies  corporate secretarial and private office services, captive insurance management, shipping and yacht registration and assistance with local property management.

JS is a dual Cayman Islands (naturalized) and South African citizen and holds a Bachelors Degree in Accounting from the University of the Free State, South Africa. He has a broad professional and commercial accounting, advisory and governance background, having worked as an accounting and corporate governance professional in both general practice and industry in South Africa from 2002 to 2007 and in the Cayman Islands with Cayman Management since 2007. JS currently hold a number of Independent Directorships of funds, financial technology holding and service companies as well as investment management companies and captive insurance / reinsurance companies. He is a member of the Cayman Islands Directors Association, the South African Institute of Professional Accountants, the Cayman Islands Institute of Professional Accountants and the Recovery and Insolvency Specialists Association of Cayman, in recent years sitting also as an Executive Committee member of the Insurance Managers Association of Cayman, the representative body for the Cayman Islands captive insurance industry. His outside interests include golf, tennis, cricket and rugby, being a past member of the Cayman Islands National Rugby team, and he is actively involved in a number of local charitable organisations and other non-profit research organisations, including volunteering as Treasurer of as well as advisor to the board of the Central Caribbean Marine Institute.

Alan Dickson

Partner, Office Head, Conyers Dill & Pearman LLP Cayman Islands

Alan Dickson is a Partner in the Corporate Department of Conyers in the Cayman Islands and has been with the firm since 2000. Previously, he headed the firm’s São Paulo office from 2009-2013 and the Singapore office from 2013-2018 and he is well-versed in both Latin America andAsia mid-shore and offshore jurisdictions.

Alan’s current practice includes many areas of corporate and commercial law, with particular experience in securities law, private equity, investment funds and mergers and acquisitions. Alan also advises public and private companies on a wide range of financings and restructurings.

Jackie Doak

Dart Enterprises, Director

For 20 years, Jackie Doak has been involved in creating exceptional places, experiences and opportunities with the Dart organisation. She is a director at Dart Enterprises Ltd., where she provides strategic guidance to real estate, hospitality and retail businesses.

Working in partnership with private and public entities to promote the Cayman Islands overseas, Jackie serves on the Board of Directors for the Cayman Islands Family Office Association. She leads Dart’s efforts to attract investors, cultivate new businesses and diversify the Islands’ economy. Jackie also serves on the Board of Directors for the Kenneth B. Dart Foundation and the R3 Cayman Foundation.

Beyond Cayman, Jackie serves on the Board of Directors for the U.S.-based Dart Interests, directs Dart’s global communications and is part of a group of advisors responsible for designing and implementing the long-term strategy for Dart’s worldwide landholdings, investments and conservation initiatives.

Jonathan Green

Global Managing Partner, Maples Group

Jonathan Green is the Global Managing Partner of Maples and Calder, the Maples Group’s law firm. He advises on all aspects of investment funds, specialising in private equity and hedge fund formation and has extensive experience in corporate, partnership and trust structures, establishing and operating fund platforms, advising on fund regulatory matters, structuring downstream transactions and advising funds on matters arising throughout their life cycle.

Jonathan joined the Maples Group in 2003 and was elected as a partner in 2007.  He previously worked for Latham & Watkins, London and for Simmons & Simmons in London and the United Arab Emirates.  Jonathan has been recommended in Legal 500, Chambers and Partners and Who’s Who Legal.

Jonathan is a member of the Cayman Islands Legal Practitioners Association and the chairman of the legislative sub-committee that developed the Limited Liability Companies Law, 2016 and he has been at the very centre of helping the Cayman Islands government draft the law and successfully launch the Cayman Islands LLC in July 2016.

Peter Hayden

Partner, Mourant Ozannes (Cayman) LLP

Peter is a Partner at Mourant and previously headed up the Litigation Practice and managed the Cayman office.  He now focuses his time on the litigation and insolvency practice.  He has over 28 years’ experience in financial services litigation, including over 15 years in the Cayman Islands.  He has dealt with many of the largest and most complex cases to be in litigated in the Cayman Islands during that time, at all levels of the Cayman Islands’ court system (Grand Court, Cayman Islands’ Court of Appeal and Privy Council).

Melissa Lim

Partner, Walkers

Melissa Lim is based in Walkers’ Cayman Islands office as a partner in the Global Investment Funds Group. She has extensive experience in a broad range of investment fund structures including private equity funds, hedge funds, technology and venture capital funds, cryptocurrency funds and unit trusts. Melissa regularly acts for leading investment banks, investment managers, private equity houses and corporate trustees, advising on the structuring and formation of funds, their downstream transactions and exit mechanisms. Her practice involves advising on mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, preference share issues, corporate restructurings and other corporate transactions, and FinTech transactions. She also advises on finance transactions (in particular, capital commitment subscription financing and LBO financing) and related issues of security creation and perfection.

Michael McWatt

Managing Director, Butterfield Bank (Cayman)

Michael McWatt is the Managing Director for Butterfield Bank (Cayman) Limited with responsibility for the Group’s Cayman operations and is a member of the Butterfield Group Executive Committee.  He is a career banker with more than 30 years’ experience in Canada, Bermuda and Cayman. He joined Butterfield in 1999 and was previously Group Chief Credit Officer in Bermuda and Executive Vice President and Deputy Managing Director in Cayman. He previously held positions in Corporate Banking and Risk Management in Canada. Michael holds a BA in Economics from McMaster University, an Honours Commerce Degree from University of Windsor and is a graduate of the Executive Program from the Ivey School of Business at Western University. He is a Director and past president of the Cayman Islands Bankers’ Association.

Alan Milgate

Senior Partner, Rawlinson & Hunter

Alan is Senior Partner of Rawlinson & Hunter, specialising in private client services including international trust structures, private trust companies and purpose trusts, estate planning and wealth management.

He advises on the establishment and ongoing administration of Cayman Islands trusts and companies, including acting as a director of a number of private trust companies, other regulated entities and client companies. Alan is the Chairman of The R&H Trust Co. Ltd. and The Harbour Trust Co. Ltd., duly licensed Cayman Islands trust companies.

Alan is a qualified Chartered Accountant (Canada), Trust and Estate Practitioner (TEP) and a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) charter holder. Alan is a Past-Chairman of the Cayman Branch of STEP, a Member of STEP Global, Past-Chairman of the Cayman Chapter of AIMA and member of the Cayman Islands Institute of Professional Accountants.

Graeme Sunley

Partner, Territory Leader, Regional Assurance and Asset and Wealth Management Leader, PwC Cayman Islands

Graeme Sunley is PwC Cayman’s territory leader as well at the asset management leader for PwC Cayman and the wider network of PwC firms across the Caribbean. He was admitted to the PwC Cayman partnership in 2006. He has more than 20 years of professional experience with PwC, the last 18 of which have been with PwC Cayman. His client portfolio comprises alternative investment funds with a variety of different investment strategies and legal structures. He works with major fund administrators, legal counsel and fund governance firms.

Nick Rogers

Partner, Ogier

Jeff Short

Partner and Wealth & Asset Management Sector Leader for EY in the Bahamas, Bermuda, BVI and Cayman Islands

Jeff is Country Managing Partner at EY Cayman Ltd. and Sector Leader for Wealth & Asset Management for the EY Region of the Bahamas, Bermuda, British Virgin Islands and Cayman Islands. He has over 20 years of experience with the EY organization, the majority of which have been in the Cayman Islands office.

Jeff’s career has been focused in the financial markets area, serving asset managers, hedge funds and private equity funds. His clients encompass start-ups to global multibillion-dollar hedge fund complexes. 

Jeff graduated with a Bachelor of Science, Accountancy, from Babson College. He is a Member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, the Massachusetts Institute and New York State Society of Certified Public Accountants.

Janet Hislop

CEO, Cayman National Corporation

Janet’s career comprises decades of senior level banking experience, having held senior positions with CIBC, Barclays Bank, and Deutsche Bank (Cayman) Limited, serving at the latter for 11 years as Chief Country Officer prior to her appointment as President of Cayman National Bank Ltd. in April 2019, and then as Chief Executive Officer of Cayman National Corporation in January 2023.

In her earlier years, Ms Hislop was employed by the Cayman Islands Government as a Genetics Counselor/Medical Social Worker and later as a Training Manager.

Ms. Hislop holds a BSc Hons in Financial Services from the University of Manchester, United Kingdom; and a BSc Hons in Molecular Biology and Genetics from the University of Guelph, Canada. She also has several professional qualifications; among these are TEP, CAMS, and ACIB, and she also successfully completed The Canadian Securities Course.

Caroline Barton

Partner, Appleby

Caroline is a partner within the Corporate department of Appleby in Cayman. Her practice areas include asset and project finance, corporate and fund finance, restructuring and mergers and acquisitions, structured finance, private equity and bond offerings.

Caroline regularly represents an extensive list of financial and private equity institutions as well as corporations.  Her vast experience reaches across capital markets, corporate, aircraft and shipping.

Caroline holds an LLB (Honours) from the University of Bristol and is ranked in the 2024 edition of The Legal500 as a “Leading Individual – Banking, Finance & Capital Markets‘ and as ‘Highly Regarded’ and a ‘Women Leader’ in IFLR1000’s 2023 Capital markets and Banking law rankings. She has also been recognised by Who’s Who Legal with respect to Aircraft Finance.

Caroline is a member of the Cayman Islands Legal Practitioners Association and the Law Society of England and Wales. She is also the current Deputy Chairperson of the Board of the Maritime Authority of the Cayman Islands and a notary public registered in the Cayman Islands.

Anthony Fantasia

Partner, Deloitte

Anthony Fantasia is the leader of the Cayman Tax Practice and has worked with some of the largest asset management firms.

Anthony has over 22 years of public accounting experience, which has been focused on the US taxation of alternative investment products, including hedge funds, private equity funds, family investment partnerships, offshore funds and fund-of-funds. He facilitates tax reporting, provides tax advisory services, assists with tax efficient structuring and advises clients on the Automatic Exchange of Information, OECD Country by Country Reporting and the Economic Substance requirements.