When Peter Mitchell first came to Bermuda in the 1980s as an accountant to work for Cooper and Lines, he was on a two-year contract. But he fell in love not only with Bermuda, but also a young Bermudian woman - and the Island became his home.

Since then, he has seen the company change beyond recognition, going from 40 to 200 staff, merging with Price Waterhouse as well as witnessing the accounting world in the United States rocked by scandal.

Last week he took over the helm of the Bermuda arm of global accounting firm, PricewaterhouseCoopers, and now hopes to keep the company on the straight and narrow while it services both local and international companies.

"The firm runs in a particular and as managing partner of the firm, and I think of myself as a coach, like in a football team, to assist and reach results," he said yesterday. "People think if you are in charge you are going to change everything - but if it ain't broke, you don't need to fix it."

He said he was very pleased to have the job and said it seems to be a necessity in this day and age for companies to have a leader.

"We have very talented people who really don't need any leadership at all," he added speaking about his first week as the managing partner. "Some of the more mundane things I think were a surprise. The administration does not just occur, there is actually quite a lot of work to do. Being a senior partner involves a lot of administration, as it does in any business - but there have not been any huge surprises."

He said his company's challenge was to build on the successes the company has enjoyed so far on the Island.

"PWC is certainly one of the largest service provider firms in the world. We came out of the merger of two companies. (PricewaterhouseCoopers was formed July 1, 1998 on the merger of international accounting firms Price Waterhouse and Coopers & Lybrand, which was locally Gray & Kempe and Cooper & Lines). And we want to build on that and service our clients.

"Our clients are the most important assets that you have as a firm, probably closely followed by your staff. It is the intellectual capital that you have, it is the ability to provide the best people to add value to your clients and indeed to provide a service. Given that, I think we have been very successful. We should continue as we go forward."

Mr. Mitchell also said that the company was constantly changing, adapting to new situations in a changing world.

"The business world changes and we have to meet new demands. We have seen the increase in insurance companies post 9/11 and we have been very successful in servicing those, but with any market change you have got to be adaptable and to service the needs of your clients."

When asked about the global accounting scandals that have rocked the world and started with Enron and it's accounting firm, Arthur Andersen, Mr. Mitchell acknowledged that it was an issue they all had to face.

"It affects all accounting firms, it affects us all," he said. "I think the challenges are to make sure you have the public's trust, because the accounting profession has taken a bit of a bashing recently - I think unjustly. We have to ensure that trust is there and continue to provide the service our clients demand.

"The events of last few years has raised an awareness as to what accountants do for their clients, particularly in the audit area," he said.

"As auditors, it was considered simply as something that was done. There have been changes, with more reliance on audit committees with companies becoming far more conscious.

"You are seeing far more communication from companies. We issued a manuscript a number of years ago about the importance of audit committees and it was interesting how many people actually read that and it has become one of the more popular pieces of works we have done in recent years."

Mr. Mitchell said that the challenges of working in Bermuda included maintaining standards and continuing to be supportive to Bermuda as an international market place.

"Bermuda is assessed by the quality of product and the product in its infrastructure, its support. We are now probably the largest insurance sector anywhere in the world and this means that there is a necessity for talent, a requirement for people who understand business.

"It is our job, as one of the service providers, to ensure that we can continue to provide that talent and to do that you look outside and within."

He went on to speak about the in-house training programme for students aimed at training people as accountants.

"I am please to say that a large number of companies on the Island hire our alumnus in some shape, manner or form," he added.

Mr. Mitchell said that as coach of the PricewaterhouseCoopers team, his job was to steer the company towards long term success.

"We have an excellent team of people and we are flexible enough to meet any challenges that come our way," he said.

PricewaterhouseCoopers (www.pwc.com) is the world's largest professional services organisation. Drawing on the knowledge and skills of more than 125,000 people in 142 countries.