Colin Powell

Geoffrey Colin Powell (17 September 1937 – 13 May 2019) was a British economist who was influential in the development of the financial services industry in Jersey. Powell's Economic Survey of Jersey was published in 1971 and helped recommend the diversification of the economy of Jersey away from agriculture and tourism towards financial services. Powell served as an Economic Adviser to the Jersey government between 1969 and 1992.

Biography Powell was born in 1937 to Eric and Kate Powell and was educated at Wallington County Grammar School in Sutton, South London. He graduated from Jesus College, Cambridge with a first class degree in Economics in 1961. Powell married Jennifer Mary Catt in 1962, the couple had three daughters.

Outside of Jersey, Powell served as the Chairman of the Group of International Finance Centre Supervisors (formerly the Offshore Group of Banking Supervisors) from 1981 to 2011. Powell served on the Financial Action Task Force on combating terrorist financing and money laundering and was additionally co-leader of two Financial Action Task Force groups on money laundering and human trafficking and the abuse of corporate vehicles. Powell worked as Vice Chair of an OECD Peer Review Group that developed international standards for exchange of information for tax purposes. Powell died in May 2019, his funeral took place at the Parish Church of St Helier. A tribute was paid to Powell at the OECD Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information in Paris in 2019. A series of memorial lectures were planned in Jersey in tribute to Powell.

The Government of Jersey said of the report that it was "not only a detailed examination of the Jersey economy, but a blueprint for its future development". Powell became a defender of Jersey's economic status in his later years; defending Jersey at international summits amid criticism of Jersey as a tax haven and a destination for the laundering of money. Bullough said that Powell had "guided finance's colonisation of Jersey" since his arrival on the island and described him as "long-nosed and lean, [with] a disconcertingly precise power of recall over almost any detail of his five decades on the island".

John Christensen, the founder of Tax Justice Network, was hired by Powell as his assistant in 1987. Powell said that international investors "... know that Jersey has political stability, doesn't have political parties. It's not going to be faced with a sudden swing to the left, or swing to the right, or whatever direction, a change of tax arrangements. It's also got fiscal stability".