White Mountains Insurance Group, Ltd., a Bermuda-based insurer, this week named Tom Hutton as president and chief executive of its reinsurance units.

Mr. Hutton takes over leadership of White Mountains Re from Steve Fass who was appointed chief executive of the White Mountains Group in recent months after Raymond Barrette quit the company.

Since 2003 Mr. Hutton has been managing director of Thompson Hutton LLC, providing management and investment advisory services to private equity and venture capital firms. Immediately prior to forming Thompson Hutton LLC, he worked as a private investor for Trident Capital, a Palo Alto, California-based venture capital firm that invests in information technology companies.

Mr. Hutton, a former chief executive of modelling company Risk Management Solutions, Inc., is the chairman of the nominating and governance committee of Safeco Insurance and also sits on the company?s audit committee.

Safeco sold its life and investment units to a group of investors led by White Mountains and Berkshire Hathaway Inc. in July 2004.

Those units now trade under the name Symetra.

Mr. Hutton is also chairman of the audit committee, sits on the underwriting committee and is financial expert on the board of Montpelier Re Holdings Ltd., a Bermuda reinsurer that White Mountains led formation of in 2001, according to information on Montpelier?s website.

Mr. Hutton, a Seattle native, graduated from Stanford University with a BA and MS in Economics and Mechanical Engineering and holds an MBA with Distinction from the Harvard Business School.