Commissioners
Ernest Joseph Thorn

Ernie Thorn was born in March 1945 and brought up in Douglas. He was educated at Tynwald Street and Demense Road Schools and then at Douglas High School for Boys.

After leaving school he became an articled clerk with Shannon Kneale and Co, a local firm of accountants from 1963 to 1968. He then spent the next three years with W.H. Walker and Co (later renamed Pannell Kerr Forster) during which time he qualified as a chartered accountant.

In 1971, at the age of 26, he joined Conister Trust, a local finance house, as the Chief Accountant. Fourteen years later he joined the board of directors as Finance Director a position he held for three years until 1988 when he became Managing Director of the firm which had greatly expanded and operated with a Banking Licence.

In 2003 he retired from Conister and set up his own accountancy practice. In 1967 he became a member of Mensa and in 2004 he was appointed to the Isle of Man Arts Council, being very well known in music circles as a tenor singer. He was a winner of the prestigious Cleveland Medal in the Manx Music Festival in 1976 and took the leading rôle in the Manx Operatic Society’s production of Jesus Christ Superstar in 1986.

In the year 2000 he took part in the commissioners promoted Onchan Millennium Concert in the Youth and Community Centre.

His other interests include walking, sport and his family. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (past chairman of the Isle of Man Society of Chartered Accountants and a Member of the Finance & Management Faculty) an Associate of the Association of International Accountants, a Licentiate of Trinity College, London (Music Performer) and a member of the Institute of Directors.

Since 1992 he has presented Manx Radio’s Opera Hour as a hobby. He was elected a commissioner at an election held in April 2008 when the number of commissioners was reduced from ten to seven and four of the retiring commissioners failed to regain their seats.

He is currently lead member for Finance and General Purposes