Chris Devonshire-Ellis

Chris Devonshire-Ellis is a British businessman, entrepreneur, author, music producer and philanthropist best known for his investments and 36-year long career in Asia. He is based in Sri Lanka, and is well-known for his geopolitical insights, especially in the Asia and Eurasian regions. He is one of the longest established business consultants in Asia and has amassed a wealth of pan-Asian investment and development experience over the past four decades. He has won several professional awards for his work over the years.

Contents

Biography

Devonshire-Ellis received a Church and subsequent University education but dropped out of his planned law degree to concentrate on a sailing career in the Greek Islands from 1982-86, based mainly in Corfu. He oversaw the operations of a British company in Greece, who had invested in Chester-built sailing craft, and franchised these out to Greek charter sail operators in the summer and to similar operators in the Canary Islands during the winter months.

He subsequently returned to the UK from 1987-89 where he worked briefly as a recruitment consultant in the financial services sector.

Singapore

He moved to Singapore in 1989 and worked there, also in recruitment, for 12 months before relocating again to a pre-handover era Hong Kong, where he lived on Lamma Island.

Hong Kong

Devonshire-Ellis briefly worked as a commodities broker in Hong Kong before joining the local publishing company, Asia Law & Practice as a legal conference organiser. The company was subsequently sold to Euromoney. He then worked briefly as consultant for a local law firm before joining Mossack Fonseca’s Hong Kong office, specialising in providing offshore incorporations in jurisdictions such as the British Virgin Islands, Niue, and the Bahamas. Mindful of the pending return of Hong Kong to China, he studied mainland Chinese commercial and business law in his spare time, using the facilities at Hong Kong library. In early 1992, he relocated to Shenzhen.

China

Devonshire-Ellis established a Hong Kong limited company, and a China Representative Office for his business, Dezan Shira & Associates in 1992, in the small town of Shekou, part of Shenzhen in Southern China. Shekou was a base for the developing oil and gas drilling industry in China, with numerous foreign companies entering the market to drill in the South China Sea. Dezan Shira & Associates was named after a spelling mistake of his surname. He established the company with an initial capital of US$500, augmenting his income by also working in the evenings on recording an English-language educational channel “Five Minutes English” for Shenzhen local radio, which was broadcast every hour across the city at the time. He achieved some measure of local fame as a result, before having to give the role up as his business began to develop.

At the time, the Chinese legal services industry had not been liberalised, with Devonshire-Ellis taking exams to pass a qualification as ‘Legally Responsible Person’ which at the time was the Chinese equivalent to being a lawyer. Although the Chinese legal services industry was liberalized and restructured under the Ministry of Justice in 1994, Devonshire-Ellis successfully reapplied annually for his licence and remained in this role until 2022. He was one of the first China-qualified, foreigners in China. He has faced some criticism for his lack of western legal qualifications.

In 1994, Dezan Shira & Associates opened further representative offices in Shanghai and Beijing, relocating himself to Shanghai in 2001 and to Beijing in 2007.

Devonshire-Ellis was recognised as one of the top ten most important consultants in China by Accountancy Age Magazine in 2011 and ranked 1st in influence by Asia Law in 2015. He has lectured in the past at numerous Universities, and was a Visiting Professor at the St. Petersburg School of Higher Economics in 2017 where he designed the course work for Master’s Degree studies into China’s Belt & Road Initiative.

Since covid he has taken more of a backseat and rather than engage directly with clients, directs his business expansion into continuing new markets.

Today, Dezan Shira & Associates China maintains 13 China offices, including Hong Kong, employs several hundred legal, tax and other professional staff and remains one of the most influential, foreign-owned, China consulting firms in the country.

China Briefing

In 1999, Devonshire-Ellis established, as a separate company in Hong Kong, the China Briefing publishing house, to further promote his firm’s increasing China experience and knowledge to a growing international market. What was an initial 500 photocopied 4 page advisory soon became a monthly, 20-page magazine with a 40,000 copy print run, distributed throughout China’s major cities and positioned as a free give away in hotels and social outlets typically frequented by international businessmen. This business model, with Dezan Shira & Associates marketing and promotion effectively served by controlling its own publishing house, was unique at the time in professional services.

Devonshire-Ellis also wrote numerous China business guides at this time, published under the China Briefing banner and dealing with issues as diverse as Setting Up Wholly Foreign Owned Enterprises, Joint Ventures, and Mergers & Acquisitions. He also co-wrote several China regional guides, many of which were co-published by Springer. In all, he wrote or co-wrote 40 China professional titles and the first 200 copies of the monthly China Briefing magazine.

He also started and published the expatriate-aimed China Expat magazine in China for ten years between 2001-2011.

During this period Devonshire-Ellis was a regular contributor and commentator on China business affairs, including with the BBC, Financial Times, The Economist, The Hill, and the South China Morning Post amongst many others.

Today, China Briefing is part of the larger Asia Briefing stable of titles, with editorial teams throughout Asia. Asia Briefing has several million original views per annum and a subscriber database running into hundreds of thousands.

PBOC Scandal

In 2011, Devonshire-Ellis attended a meeting with the then People’s Bank of China Chairman, Liu Minkang. Unbeknownst to him, Liu was under time pressure as the next day he was due to meet Hillary Clinton, then US Secretary of State, to defend China against allegations of manipulating its currency. Liu failed to mention his discussions were private, and made certain statements related to the position of the Chinese RMB and the Hong Kong dollar rates. Devonshire-Ellis then subsequently posted these remarks on the China Briefing website that evening.

The following morning the global markets had moved by billions of dollars, with intense scrutiny placed on Devonshire-Ellis’s role in the situation. He had also erroneously described the meeting as an ‘interview’ – allowing the PBOC to deny any such conversation had taken place. Devonshire-Ellis subsequently apologised for a ‘breach of etiquette’. Yet in doing so, he refused to lay the blame for the mistake with Liu Minkang, who the Western media wanted to see exposed and for Devonshire-Ellis to contradict him. This stance infuriated certain western media and other individuals.

Devonshire-Ellis remained in China despite intense western media pressure and criticism, with the issue then spun as a serious breach of Devonshire-Ellis’s professional credibility. Many of these accusations were factually incorrect and borderline libelous. Both he and his family faced intense online and public harassment from western journalists and certain individuals at that time.

In China, the impact was the early retirement of Liu Minkang a few months later, together with new regulations bought in that state that questions and remarks to be discussed with Chinese Ministerial level officials must first be submitted and approved in advance. Devonshire-Ellis continues to visit China on a regular basis.

Professional Career

India

In 2002, Devonshire-Ellis established Dezan Shira & Associates in India, and at the same time began India Briefing. This was initially co-produced with the Times of India group. Dezan Shira & Associates India today has operations in three Indian cities and employs numerous Indian lawyers, accountants and auditors. Devonshire-Ellis was based in India during the initial set up period for about 12 months.

Vietnam

In 2003, operations in Vietnam were established, as was Vietnam Briefing. Dezan Shira & Associates Vietnam now has offices in three Vietnamese cities and is one of the largest foreign consulting practices in the country.

Singapore

Devonshire-Ellis then established Dezan Shira & Associates Singapore offices and the subsequent ASEAN Briefing publications in 2004. Today this office employs several Singaporean lawyers, tax specialists and ASEAN experts and is well known amongst the international services industry in the country.

United States

Devonshire-Ellis travelled extensively in the United States during 2002-6 and established a series of partnerships with US and Canadian based law and tax firms. His company also became members of the Leading Edge Alliance, one of the world’s largest professional services networks. In 2013, Devonshire-Ellis’s firm won the organisations “Award for International Excellence”

Today, his firm has representation in Washington DC.

Asian Alliance

Eager to continue expansion throughout Asia, yet lacking the resources to do so, Devonshire-Ellis established the ‘Dezan Shira Asian Alliance’ in 2004, striking up partnerships with legal and tax firms in Indonesia, Malaysia, The Philippines, and Thailand. Today, these relationships have morphed into fully-fledged Dezan Shira & Associates owned, licenced local offices, also employing multiple legal and tax professionals in these countries.

Russia

Devonshire-Ellis established professional relationships between Dezan Shira & Associates with law and tax firms in Moscow, St. Petersburg and Vladivostok in 2013. This developed into a sizeable practice with the firm handling Russian clients in Asia, supported by the publication Russia Briefing. Due to political pressures placed on the firm in 2022 following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Devonshire-Ellis closed the practice and relocated the staff to Dubai.

Dubai

Devonshire-Ellis established Dezan Shira & Associates Dubai in 2016, following that with the subsequent launch of Middle East Briefing. The practice was augmented in 2022 with Russian employees relocating to this office. Today the firm is operational in the Dubai Free Trade Zone and employs numerous legal and tax professionals. It also has representation in Turkiye.

Other Markets

Devonshire-Ellis has continued to invest and establish professional operations in other markets, including smaller, yet productive collaborations in Australia, Bangladesh, Japan, Mongolia, Nepal, South Korea and Sri Lanka. He has also established a network of partnership offices throughout Europe.

Current Professional Role

Over the years, Devonshire-Ellis has been personally responsible for the successful placing of several billions of dollars of foreign investment into Asia, representing clients from over 90 countries. Devonshire-Ellis remains the Dezan Shira & Associates Chairman, and its largest shareholder. His role continues to encompass global strategic development, although he rarely gets involved in direct client work.

Other Professional Works

Devonshire-Ellis wrote and published the title Mongolia Expat for several years, with copies circulating throughout Ulaanbaatar and Beijing. He wrote a Travel Guide To Ulaan Baatar and the Mongolian Countryside in 2007, with the book launch at the British Embassy in Ulaan Baatar. He gave the proceeds from the book to local orphanages.

Devonshire-Ellis co-wrote the United Nations Development Programme Guide to North Korea, which was published during his tenure as Deputy Chairman of the UNDP Greater Tumen Initiative, in 2008.

Devonshire-Ellis wrote one of the first books about China’s Belt & Road Initiative, “China's New Economic Silk Road: The Great Eurasian Game & The String of Pearls” in 2015.

Other Activities

Music Production

Devonshire-Ellis has worked with numerous musicians over the years, occasionally integrating this with his professional career. In 2012, he commissioned the New Zealand composer Brent Parker to write a string quartet to celebrate Dezan Shira & Associates 20th anniversary. The result was the Four Corners Quartet which premiered in Shanghai, with the four movements representing the firms influences from the United Kingdom, Italy, China and India.

In 2019, he financed the recording of London-based, French singer Anne Pigalle’s album, “Ecstase” which featured contributions from ex-Sex Pistol Glen Matlock.

Since 2018, Devonshire-Ellis has had a productive musical collaboration with the St. Petersburg, Russian based classical composer Igor Balakirev. This has resulted in several albums being released, including original compositions by Balakirev based on Russian texts and prose suggested by Devonshire-Ellis, and with Devonshire-Ellis producing. These have also included transcribed works by the Estonian Composer Alfred Karindi and a Liturgy.

Several acclaimed videos have been released from these recordings, including the songs “Angel” based on text by Alexander Pushkin, “Kavkaz” based on text by Mikhail Lermontov, and Pushkin’s “Winter” amongst numerous others.

Their latest collaboration has been on the album “Summer Garden” which featured compositions based on the works by Anna Akhmatova, Anton Delvig, Afanasy Fet, Nikolay Yazykov, Apollon Maykov and Fyodor Tytchev.

Balakirev and Devonshire-Ellis are currently working on a film soundtrack for an upcoming Mongolian film production about the life of Nicholas Roerich.

Haute Couture

In 2018 and 2019, Devonshire-Ellis collaborated with Estonian designer and model Beatrice Fenice on two original haute couture collections. These were inspired by Devonshire-Ellis’s travels, where over several months travelling to numerous Silk Road countries as part of his research into China’s Belt & Road Initiative, he purchased numerous samples of different fabrics. These were worked by Fenice into a series of stunning haute couture wear named “Road” and premiered at the 2018 Estonian Fashion Week. This was followed by a 2019 collection titled “B” which featured a more grungy look. Both collections immediately sold out, yet as Devonshire-Ellis stated in 2020 “The next move was to take these concepts to the Paris Fashion Week. But that proved to be so expensive it was beyond our capabilities.”

In 2023, Devonshire-Ellis modelled a series of Gentleman’s clothing for the Estonian haute couture label Guild partially based on his fabric and design suggestions to their head designer and tailor, Sten Karik.

Other Written Works

In 2024, Devonshire-Ellis wrote a collection of children’s stories, “The Optimistic Kingfisher” published by Jam Fruit Tree Publications in Sri Lanka. The stories are designed to be read to visiting young children at their bedtime and deal extensively with introducing them to Sri Lankan nature. The book was launched at the 2024 Galle Literary Festival and has been translated into Russian, Singhalese and Tamil.

Devonshire-Ellis is currently working on a book of Mongolian short stories and another concerning British expatriate life in Ceylon during the Raj era.

Titles

In 2011, Devonshire-Ellis was offered the title of Baron Of Coigach by the then Baron, the 5th Earl Cromartie in order to assist with local development in the Coigach region. The title dates back to 1511, with Devonshire-Ellis paying a charitable consideration for the title and subsequently quietly assisting the local community through private donations and related works.

In 2016, Devonshire-Ellis was awarded the archaic title ‘Seneshal of Grantly’ for his work in assisting with raising funds and contributing to the restoration of murals at Scotland’s oldest Church, St. Mary’s at Grandtully.

Devonshire-Ellis does not use either of these titles professionally or personally.

Memberships

Devonshire-Ellis is a member of the Royal Overseas League, the St. James Club, and a Life member of the Hanoi Press Club for his services to journalism in ASEAN. He is also an active member of the Royal Malta Yacht Club.

He has previously been a member of the Beijing Capital Club and the Institute of Directors.

Personal Life

Devonshire-Ellis maintains a working Farmhouse in Sri Lanka’s Hill Country as his winter residence, and has an Imperial era apartment close to the St. Petersburg Summer Gardens, where he tends to base his summers. He also owns property in Mongolia, and Europe. He is currently developing an artistic retreat for musicians and other artists, between St. Petersburg and Moscow in Russia, using a converted manor house, renovated dachas and installing luxury accommodation and a recording studio. He also has property development projects in Sri Lanka.

Devonshire-Ellis is a direct descendant of the Devonshire-Ellis family who owned the John Brown & Company shipyards in Glasgow.

He is a competent horseman and holds an Ocean Skippers licence from the American Sailing Association. His China Briefing Yacht, a 32 foot Beneteau with a racing keel, placed fifth in the Thailand annual Kings Cup races in 2009 over five days, from a field of over 170, often larger vessels.

Other details about his personal life and family are kept private due to previously intense media scrutiny and online abuse.

Philanthropy

Devonshire-Ellis contributes to numerous local and international charities, sometimes on an as need basis. He prefers to direct funds to charitable projects where the money can be used directly on the ground instead of being eaten up by administrative and salary overheads, and research’s details when before making donations. He prefers to keep these donations low-key, however they have included a diverse array of programmes involving work in Tibet, China, India, Mongolia, Sri Lanka amongst many others. His common creed is that being in possession of personally created wealth is a privilege, not a right, and it is a moral duty to share it.

References

1. Asia Briefing “How and Why Dezan Shira Began In 1992 and the First Principles Of Success”
2. Treptalks “How a Western Entrepreneur Turned US$50,000 Into US$50 Million in Asia”
3. Gateway House “India-China Foreign Policy”
4. Educated Interviews “China’s Belt & Road and Mongolia”
5. Syriana “ BRICS is EXPANDING, Should The U.S. Be Concerned?”
6. RDTV “Mega BRICS+ Bloc: The Ignored Summit That Could Change The World”
7. China Daily “Success Comes With A Caveat”
8. Zawya “B3W Must Focus On Funding To Rival BRI”
9. CNBC “China To Create International Courts For Belt & Road Disputes”