In the moments before chairman and chief executive officer Rolf Huppi arrived on foot at the new Zurich Centre, half an hour before he would declare the building open and cut the ribbon with Premier Jennifer Smith, a team of workers assiduously polished the lamps in the Plaza outside the new building.

A team of security guards took up their positions around the complex as the elegant Mr. Huppi strode into the newest jewel in the crown of the worldwide Zurich Financial Services group (ZFS).

The company was born a little over a year ago from the merger of the Zurich Group and the financial services business of B.A.T. Industries, formerly known as British American Tobacco. ZFS operates as a collection of 350 companies, including such well-known names as Allied Dunbar, Eagle Star, Scudder Kemper Investments and the Centre Solutions companies.

The ZFS group is a financial behemoth, with more than 68,000 employees. Its major products are individual and corporate protection and wealth accumulation services. As insurers, ZFS took in premiums of a little under $45 billion in 1998, which is more than Bermuda's entire insurance industry generated. As financial managers, ZFS looks after $423 billion of other people's money (as of June 30, 1999). As the United States proposes to deregulate its financial services sector, ZFS is a classic example of the companies which will emerge: insurers and money managers working under a single brand name.

At the helm of ZFS, Mr. Huppi is based in Zurich. He joined the company in 1963, as a 20-year-old, and a year later was posted to India. Within two years, he had assumed responsibility for Zurich's Indian operations and he has been taking charge of more and more of the company ever since. Late last year, he was appointed to the top post at the new ZFS.

Talking exclusively to The Royal Gazette just before joining his guests for the formal opening ceremonies, flanked by the company's Bermuda chief executive, Paul Hellmers, Mr. Huppi recalled his first visit to the Island in 1976, which led to the opening of the company's first office in Bermuda, a one-desk operation, a year later.

"You have to see this building in the context of our history here, which has been one of growth every year,'' Mr. Huppi said. "The fact that we are in a pre-eminent location in Hamilton underlines and underscores our commitment to Bermuda. We have always been connected here.'' It would be a cliche to describe the immaculately-dressed entrepreneur as precise simply because he is Swiss, although, like love and marriage, it seems, you can't have one without the other. "The building is nice,'' Mr. Huppi said, relaxing into his swing.

"It's a confirmation of our position and reflects well on the group and, I think, on Bermuda.'' Like other local giants such as ACE and XL, ZFS has become acclimatised to having its staff spread out across Hamilton as the dynamic growth of Bermuda's international business sector has outstripped the island's ability to provide large enough premises. For ZFS, the facilities have now caught up to the growth curve. How long, one wonders, before the new facilities prove too small? "If that were to happen, I would ask the employees to become more productive,'' said Mr. Huppi, with a broad grin. "Actually, we think of ourselves as moving away from needing more and more infrastructure. We are emphasising our intellectual capital, rather than the bricks and mortar.'' One floor below him, with their guests, was embodied the very intellectual capital of which he spoke, the ZFS employees, celebrating the opening of a new chapter in Bermuda's international business affairs.

Companies the size of ZFS, AIG, ACE, XL and PartnerRe, each in their own building around Hamilton, are taking Bermuda on a continuing pattern of steady economic growth into the new age, for which the remarkable developments of this century may only be a prelude.

Mr. Huppi and Bermuda are both players on a global stage. As the former rose to go downstairs to greet the latter, he took the time to ask a reporter some questions of his own. "You've probably had more fun than I have,'' Mr. Huppi said; then he paused for a moment to consider that statement in light of his own career. "No, on second thoughts, I don't think that's true,'' he said.