The Island's top insurance professionals were on show at the Bermuda Insurance Institute's (BII) 11th Annual Insurance Industry Awards dinner held at the Hamilton Princess Hotel this month.

Lifetime achievement award recipient, Axis Capital Holdings Ltd.'s chairman Michael Butt was unswerving in his support for the Bermuda insurance market, especially in light of political and regulatory reviews in the US and the UK which could impact the future of the Island's insurers.

Mr. Butt, who was instrumental in building of one of the world's largest reinsurance markets, praised the BII for playing a major educational role in the professional development of skilled Bermudian executives.

Meanwhile PartnerRe Ltd.'s president and CEO Patrick Thiele, the BII's reinsurance person of the year, also has a large number of Bermudian executives in his company's senior management.

Assistant vice-president and excess liability underwriter at XL Insurance (Bermuda) Ltd., Erica Symonds, was named the young re/insurance person of the year, while lawyer Bala Nadarajah, special legal counsel at Attride-Stirling and Woloniecki (ASW), was given a special award for his outstanding service to the Bermuda re/insurance industry.

Neither have the public profile, or are perhaps as widely known in the global markets as Mr. Butt or Mr. Thiele, yet the presence of both has made powerful statements for what has differentiated Bermuda from other markets.

In accepting her award, Ms Symonds, a Warwick Academy graduate, congratulated the other recipients and revealed the secret of her success as family, school friends and several mentors and industry professionals who offered encouragement through her life and career.

It was in recognition of how key people in the industry have helped her progression, that Ms Symonds felt obliged to return the favour by serving in the Bermuda school-based mentoring programme YouthNet, and, became a member of the executive committee of the Bermuda chapter of the CPCU Society in 2006 working to help develop CPCU members.Today, she is the president of the local chapter.

"Together we have made significant inroads in the growth of our membership having become the largest international chapter of the entire CPCU Society," Ms Symonds said.

"My involvement with Youth Net affords me the opportunity to make an impact on a young person's life by instilling in them - by word and by deed - that the only limitations which exist are those which exist in one's mind.

"In closing, I would encourage all of us to be cognisant of our responsibility to be good global citizens. In so doing, we can each make a difference - one small deed at a time."

Mr. Nadarajah,was invited to the Bermuda from Sri Lanka 30 years ago by former Registrar of Companies, the late Shelton Burgess - a key architect of the Island's insurance laws, the Bermuda insurance Act 1978 - to help with the drafting of the insurance regulations and the implementation of insurance law in Bermuda.

"The work we all did has stood the test of time and has provided Bermuda with a solid infrastructural and regulatory foundation," he said.

"Interestingly enough, the early clamour for regulation came from the insurance industry itself. I believe that has engendered a co-operative spirit between the regulator and the regulated and I hope that same spirit of co-operation and interaction will always continue in Bermuda."

Mr. Nadarajah said he shared the award with many people, including members of the Bermuda insurance industry, accountants and lawyers who lent their expertise to him.

"Even while in private practice; I continued to be involved with the updating of the Insurance Act and Regulations," he said.

"I have been privileged to be an eyewitness to the momentous growth and transformation of Bermuda from a captive domicile into one of the leading commercial reinsurance jurisdictions in the world. I would like to think that the regulatory foundation that was laid in the 1970ss and the continued updating of regulation in later years have helped Bermuda maintain its pre-eminent position in the insurance world.

"Although Bermuda faces many challenges, I am still very confident about Bermuda's future.The Bermuda captive remains an excellent alternative risk solution and the need for property catastrophe reinsurance is still very much in demand. We have great intellectual capital here and a flexible yet responsible regulatory system."

Mr. Nadarajah spent several years starting in the mid-80s in Washington DC as a special consultant to Bermuda, advising the government on tax and business matters. He later returned and was responsible for the drafting of several private bills. Today, he is listed as one of the world's leading insurance lawyers, and legal industry experts simply call him the 'Senior Statesman'.