ERROR RG P4 5.5.1997 Exel Ltd. Chief Financial Officer Brian Walford worked for Marsh & McLennan in Bermuda and Barbados before joining the company. Information from U.S.-based Offshore Alert newsletter, and reprinted in The Royal Gazette, erroneously stated that he had worked for Trenwick Re.

Brian O'Hara, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Exel Ltd., was the best paid insurance executive of Bermuda-based companies publicly listed in the US, according to a US-based newsletter.

Mr. O'Hara was paid a total package of about $5.5 million in Exel's 1996 fiscal year according to Offshore Alert. The package includes money Mr. O'Hara received as salary and bonuses, and for housing, travel, pension benefits and net profit of stock grants.

Exel's Chief Financial Officer Brian Walford received the third highest pay among insurance executives, while the company's President and Chief Operating Officer, Robert Cooney, received the eighth highest pay.

"For O'Hara, Walford and Cooney, their riches and success represent a sharp reversal of fortune from their failures at their previous company, Bermuda-based Trenwick Re, which went into run off in the late 1980s and ultimately went bust under a new owner,'' the newsletter stated.

The pay information was gleaned from publicly available company filings with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

Michael Butt, President and Chief Executive Officer of reinsurer Mid Ocean Ltd., received $3.5 million during the company's 1996 fiscal year, the second highest enumeration in the sector according to the magazine.

"Butt, also, has fallen on his feet following his ignominious departure in 1991 as chairman and CEO of giant British insurer Eagle Star after the company posted a 189 million loss for the first half of that year, largely due to mortgage indemnity losses.'' Offshore Alert is produced by David Marchant, a business reporter who used to work in Bermuda.

Gazette file photo BRIAN O'HARA -- Paid a total package of about $5.5 million during 1996 fiscal year, according to Offshore Alert.

MAGAZINE NJ