Bermudian Mrs. Sheila Manderson takes over the hot seat from Canadian Mr. Hume Martin in August.

She will spend a week with him first to size up her task.

Until she has assessed the situation, she says, she cannot formulate any plans.

Mrs. Manderson has been administrator of the Kaiser Foundation Hospital in Richmond, California since 1988.

The hospital serves 65,000 members of a pre-paid health plan -- a group slightly bigger than the population of Bermuda.

"I'm looking forward to coming home very much,'' she told The Royal Gazette .

"I'm just pleased to have the opportunity to come back and contribute to Bermuda.

"I think as a Bermudian and as a female I bring a unique perspective to the position. I'm very much looking forward to working with the team.

"I need to get oriented and assess the situation before I attempt to make any changes.

"There's always room for change and improvement as health care changes, but I need to take time to really assess what the situation is.'' Mrs. Manderson said she was also hoping to get involved in community activities, if she had the time.

In her area of California she was "very active'', she said. She chairs a local group of the United Way charity fund-raising organisation.

Mrs. Manderson's Jamaican husband, Neville, has recently retired from an administrative post at the University of California.

They have a 30-year-old son, Brian, a graduate of the university, who works for the Pacific Bell phone company. He will be staying in the US when his parents move to Bermuda in July.

Mrs. Manderson, whose maiden name was Jones, was educated at Berkeley Institute. She earned a diploma in nursing from Montreal General Hospital, followed by an MBA in health services administration from Golden Gate University in San Francisco.