have been many other opportunities to see how hard Mrs. Gina Smith will work to achieve her goals.

She is holding down an insurance job in senior management, and, zeroing in on a top actuarial qualification, after already becoming something of a Bermudian rarity.

Mrs. Smith is one of probably no more than a handful of Bermudian students who grew up preparing to be an actuary, and then actually achieved it.

Bermudian actuaries, even in today's world of high finance insurance companies, are surprisingly rare.

She is company actuary and assistant vice president hired by Aon Risk Consultants (Bermuda) Ltd. for LaSalle Re Ltd. She is an Associate of the Casualty Actuarial Society (ACAS) and a Chartered Property Casualty Underwriter (CPCU).

Her current statis is far removed from the day, 17 years ago, when pop king Michael Jackson, publicly held the then Gina Blakeney's hand and serenaded her with words like "Heaven knows I love you girl''. But it is the same woman who sees herself one day heading a major insurance company.

After leaving Berkeley, she spent a year in the Philippines, in Davao City on the island of Mindanao, as a Rotary exchange student.

She said it was there that she learned that "people are people.'' She described the Filipinos as warm and simple. While there, she enjoyed a relatively privileged lifestyle in a country where poverty is often just a part of life, Catholicism (except for minority Moslem enclaves) is normal and a virtual caste system creates indentured servants.

Even as a foreigner who benefited from the labour of such household servants, she was often mistaken for a native Filipino.

"It really showed me how people were judged almost anywhere by the way they look. That experience really brought that to life for me and I really learned a lot about the human race in general. People are surprisingly very much alike in many ways.'' She studied at the Bermuda College, the University of Western Ontario and eventually the New York College of Insurance, the latter under an American International scholarship.

"I was at Western for two years and finished my degree in Actuarial Sciences in New York.

"When I returned home, I went to work with Tillinghast, as I continued to work toward my actuarial designation. I was there for four years, but it was my first real working experience and I learned a lot about life.'' At Tillinghast, a lot of her actuarial analysis revolved around loss reserving studies in which she learned a lot about crunching numbers and computer modelling.

She said that she has always "enjoyed amassing knowledge'' and is spending the next three years scheduling self-study for the last three exams she needs to become a Fellow of the Casualty Actuarial Society (FCAS).

"I'm going to take my time now. I've gone through the first seven sets of exams. I survived ten others for the CPCU and I really want to spend some time too, rounding out my knowledge on some other subjects. I'm thinking about taking some investment examinations.

"I want to be a financial expert for insurance.'' But after Tillinghast, she stepped back from life and got deeply into her studies. Although she passed actuarial and CPCU exams in this period, her achievements failed to live up to the standard she set for herself. But she did obtain her CPCU designation in that period.

After two years of study, she was back in the workplace in 1990, as an actuarial analyst this time for Inter-Ocean Reinsurance Ltd., a finite risk reinsurer. She was assisting the underwriters.

Two years later, she was with XL Insurance Company Ltd., who moved her into an actuarial/underwriting role working with senior executives. It was during this period that she qualified as an actuary.

"XL was very helpful in providing the time I needed to get the last exams done. It is a great company. They allowed me the time I needed. After I qualified though, I was approached by a lot of companies.

"I was very reluctant, actually, to leave XL. They were very good to me, but I was not moved into a pure actuarial role, which is what I really wanted. I understood their position. They were a large company and were looking to hire someone with many, many years of experience, whereas I had just qualified.'' But the head hunters had already begun to come calling.

Today, she reports to the chief actuary of Aon Risk Consultants in Chicago who, along with CNA, are the key investors in LaSalle Re.

She intends to obtain her FCAS before having children with husband Phillip, who is an assistant vice president with Centre Reinsurance. He is a chartered accountant by training, with an MBA in International Business.

But she will also seek a Chartered Financial Analyst designation, an increasingly necessary qualification for investment experts, which requires more intense study.

Smith adds to qualifications "I'm working closely with underwriters right now, so I am learning a lot about reinsurance. I've worked for a consulting firm, a finite risk carrier, an excess liability company and I'm now getting some reinsurance experience.

"The ideal position for an actuary is to really get as much knowledge of insurance, in as many areas as possible. I'm really getting that exposure and that's wonderful. An actuary should have as broad a scope of the business as possible.

"The actuary should be the engineer of the company.'' For most of her young years Mrs. Smith concedes she lived in an academic bubble, in a world measured by achievement.

The year before she won an opportunity to be a Rotary exchange student, the shy 15-year-old won the title of Bermuda's Talented Teen in 1978. Newspaper reports of the day said she entertained the audience "with a rather unique modern dance choreographed to a poem she had written and recorded, entitled "My Dream''. Even then, she worked hard to achieve the title.

She was crowned by then reigning Miss Talented Teen International, Miss Melody Smith of New Jersey. That summer, she traveled to California for an all-expenses paid 21-day stay in Hollywood, where she competed for the international title.

It was while on stage there that the then Jackson 5 pop group, led by Michael Jackson, provided musical entertainment, while the contestants were on stage at the famous Coconut Grove Hotel. And it was her personal highlight when the teen sensation held her by the hand and crooned the words to their hit of the day.

Her father, Mr. St. Clair Blakeney, was a founder of Atlantic Western Insurance Company in the 1960s. He is currently operating a part interest in the real estate firm, Prime Equities. Her mother, Mrs. Davina Blakeney, is the principal of West Pembroke School.

LOOKING TO THE FUTURE -- Mrs. Gina Smith