A writer who specialises in business has visited the Isle of Man and met a number of people in the finance sector.

Karen Jones, the editor of Citywealth, paid a visit and then sent a press release to us about it.

That press release says Finance Isle of Man, a government agency, had invited journalists to visit the island.

The release says Ms Jones visited ‘to help with the initiatives, and spread the word about developments on the island including the Aviva temperate rain forests’.

We asked if she was being paid by Finance Isle of Man and her head of public relations said she wasn’t.

Ms Jones’s media company, Citywealth, was founded in 2005 for the global wealth management industry, which includes banks and trust companies, has had ‘close ties’ with the Isle of Man since the company’s inception.

The island’s ‘excellence’ in the financial services sector has been recognised by many Citywealth awards over the years, the press release says.

Citywealth runs a number of awards events, which companies from the Isle of Man have entered.

Ms Jones met Peter Greenhill MLC to discuss developments including the new ferry from the Steam Packet.

She also talked to Joanna Crookall, chief executive of Ramsey Crookall, the stockbroking and investment management company.

Ms Jones says she was ‘greatly impressed’ by Miss Crookall’s list of achievements and her dedication to her career.

Ms Jones also had meetings with David Harding, managing director of the company, and Tom Croft, its investment director.

John Hunter, who is a trustee at The Manx Wildlife Trust and a non-executive director at Isle of Man financial services business Cherry Godfrey, talked about the biosphere, orchid fields and the plans from Aviva to replant the first temperate rain forests as part of a wider strategy with £100million being invested globally.

During the two-day trip, Ms Jones also ‘caught up’ with the latest developments within the insurance sector, guided through the topic by Simon Pickering, head of insurance and pensions in the Department for Enterprise, hearing about new initiatives with insuretech.

Other face-to-face meetings took place with Greg Easton, managing director of Ravenscroft, stockbrokers in the island, which has won awards in Citywealth events in the past, Ross Dennet, chairman of asset management firm Thomas Miller, John Hunter, board member of Finance Isle of Man and Dina Hill, its marketing manager, Mike Batey, chair of the International Employee Benefits Association, Kyle Brits, head of Fintech and Virtual Assets at Sunetra Global, Catherine Griffiths, managing director at Apex Fund Services, and Scott Leonard-Morgan, director of the law firm Cains.

Ms Jones says she ‘took the time and effort to engage in face-to-face meetings that still produce the best results when it comes to strengthening relationships and exchanging valuable information’.

In her press release she said that her ‘dedication’ was ‘much appreciated by the government of the Isle of Man and its business community’.