A successor is expected to be named next month, a Jersey government spokesman said.
The role – described in a May recruitment advert as “director of financial services” – is envisioned as being less internationally-focused than it was during De Forest’s time, now that Jersey has established representative offices in the Middle East, Hong Kong and India, and a joint office, with Guernsey, in Brussels.
De Forest-Brown, who relocated to London from Jersey in 2010, said he had decided that he wanted to remain in the UK, and had he wanted to continue in his States of Jersey job he would have had to return to the island, now that the role had changed.
He is now based in Guilford, where he looks after the Southeast region for the FD Centre, which provides part-time finance directors to small and medium-sized companies that cannot, or prefer not to, pay for a fulltime finance director.
Prior to joining the States of Jersey in 2007, De Forest-Brown spent 11 years with Abbey, the bank that was acquired by Santander and took its name in 2010, at one point heading up the Abbey National operation in Jersey as managing director. Other previous roles included strategy director at Prudential in the UK between 2004 and 2006.
