Chris Devonshire-Ellis, Principal & Founding Partner
Chris Devonshire-Ellis is the founder of Dezan Shira & Associates, Asia's largest independent business advisors and tax consultants, advising multinational businesses on matters of foreign direct investment into China, Hong Kong, India, Vietnam and Singapore. Established in 1992 and now in its twentieth year, the practice has twelve offices in China, five in India, two in Vietnam, and one in Singapore. The firm services over 2,000 retained multinational clients from over 90 countries in these countries and is a member of the Leading Edge Alliance of global accountants and auditors. The alliance obtained a combined global annual turnover in excess of US$2.7 billion in 2011. Chris became the Baron of Coigach, a Scottish title of nobility dating back to 1511, in April 2011.
Prior to establishing Dezan Shira & Associates, Chris worked for Asia Law & Practice and the international law firm Mossack Fonseca based in both Hong Kong and Singapore. He has worked full time in Asia since 1986 and is an elected member of the UNDP business advisory council for North East Asia, which includes the governments of China, Russia, Mongolia, North Korea and South Korea. He currently serves as the Vice-Chairman of the UNDP business advisory council for their Greater Tumen (North-East Asia) Initiative.
Chris also founded the Asia Briefing publishing house in 1999 with its well-received China Briefing magazines and books concerning matters of China business law and tax. Chris edited and co-edited several best-selling books about business in China, including regional guides to Beijing and Shanghai, in addition to various technical guides concerning corporate establishment, foreign direct investment, business law and tax in China.
He consequently founded the India Briefing brand in 2007, which also publishes business magazines and guidebooks concerning Indian foreign investment law and tax matters. He has just completed writing the India Briefing Guide to Doing Business in India. He established Vietnam Briefing in 2008 concerning foreign direct investment into Vietnam, and Russia Briefing in 2010 concerning investment into Russia. Chris can also be read on the Emerging Asia business blog 2point6billion.com, while Mongolia Briefing www.mongolia-briefing.com was rolled out in summer 2011.
His personal travel blog can be found at www.chrisdevonshire-ellis.com.
Chris stepped down from his position as managing partner of the China Practice in 2007 to concentrate on the firm’s development in India. Having successfully established the practice there he is now responsible for the development of the firm in other Asian markets as well as the global development of the practice. He spends his time commuting between China, India, South-East Asia and the United States and is heavily involved in the developing legal, tax and operational issues affecting multinational corporations conducting business between these regions.
Chris licensed the China Briefing series of titles to the international academic publishing house Springer in 2011, and was involved in re-writing and editing all China Briefing’s technical titles. These include business guides on Chinese Representative Offices, Wholly Foreign Owned Enterprises, Joint Ventures, Mergers & Acquisitions, Intellectual Property, Transfer Pricing, Human Resources and the China Tax Guide.
In his free time he has also published an adventure travel guide to Mongolia, and is currently working on an historic account of explorers to Tibet from the 13th to the 19th centuries. He is a member of the Royal Overseas League, The Institute of Directors, the Capital Club in Beijing, and an associate member of the Royal Bombay Yacht Club in Mumbai. His UNDP work takes in activities for the Business Advisory Council for the Greater Tumen Initiative, a United Nations Development Program-supported initiative that is concentrates on the social, economic, infrastructural and political development between Northeast China, Eastern Russia, Mongolia, North Korea and South Korea. Contact Chris at chris.devonshire@dezshira.com
Chris Devonshire-Ellis: In the Press
