Chubb Atlantic Indemnity, a Bermuda-based wholly owned subsidiary of the Chubb Corporation, has appointed Paul Van Pelt to the position of president and chief executive officer.

Mr. Van Pelt began his career with Chubb in 1981 and has worked in Chubb's offices in New York, Atlanta, Dallas and New Jersey before moving to London in 1987. The past 14 years he has worked for Chubb Insurance Company of Europe where he established, developed and ran the financial institutions division for Chubb. He graduated from Princeton University with a BA in Economics.

HOHMANN TAKES ON XL CAPITAL APP Hohmann takes on XL Capital James Hohmann has been appointed president and chief executive officer to head XL Capital Life and Annuity, XL's new life unit. He will be responsible for developing an institutionally-oriented life and annuity business as a core product area of the company's financial products and services operations.

Mr. Hohmann was formerly president of Zurich Kemper Life's financial institutions division. Before that he was managing partner of the Chicago office of the consulting firm of Tillinghast, Towers Perrin.

He said: "XL Capital Life and Annuity provides an exciting and challenging opportunity to start a non-traditional life operation with an emphasis on institutional customers.

"This business will play to XL's strengths, which include a strong balance sheet, superior ratings, innovation and investment capabilities that incorporate expertise with alternative investments.'' BRIGHT TO SPEAK AT BII CON Bright to speak at BII Michael Bright , president of the Chartered Insurance Institute -- CII -- and deputy chairman of the Independent Insurance Group, will address insurers and other professionals at a Bermuda Insurance Institute lunch on Wednesday, May 30.

The CII is the largest and most influential professional and educational organisation in the global insurance and financial services industries today.

It has 64,000 practising members, a strong presence in over 120 countries and long-term affiliations with more than 60 institutes around the world.

The institute delivers world class standards of education and support to practitioners at every stage of their professional and personal development.

This ensures CII graduates are appropriately qualified for an effective and successful career in the increasingly competitive and continually expanding insurance and financial services industries.

Mr. Bright has been a member of the CII since 1961 and an associate since 1965. He was also president of the Folkstone and South Kent Insurance Institute in 1977.

The lunch will be held at the Fairmont Hamilton Princess hotel. Today is the last day for registration with the BII.

NEW HEAD OF MAX RE EUROPE APP New head of Max Re Europe m Bermuda-based reinsurer Max Re, which allocates about 40 percent of its investment portfolio to hedge funds, in May appointed Christopher Quinn as an executive vice president and managing director for Max Re Europe Ltd.

Prior to joining Max Re, Mr. Quinn served as a managing director of ING Barings in London, heading the insurance-sector finance division, which he helped build from the ground up over the last decade.

Mr. Quinn's May departure came on the tail of a series of high-level defections from the Dutch financial services firm ING Groep NV.

Earlier this year, six investment bankers left ING for Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein's equity-derivatives division, while two media and technology specialists, Anthony Corbett and Christopher Ellis, were poached by Bear Stearns.

The staff migrations from ING's London office followed sale of the ING Groep's US investment banking wing to ABN AMRO earlier this year and the firm's plan to slash some 1,000 jobs to save $500 million through a reorganisation that now emphasises investment banking activities in Europe, Asia and Latin America.

Mr. Quinn's specialisation at ING was in the insurance and banking sectors. As managing director of Max Re Europe, Mr. Quinn will be based in Dublin. His focus will be on the insurance company' life, annuity and European pension-fund business.

Max Re has indicated that Dublin-based division of the business would be transformed into a fully capitalised reinsurer sometime in this year.

The results for its Max Re's first full year of operations, released in April, showed an annual return of 7.8 percent on its portfolio for the calendar ending December 31.

At that time, Max Re reported assets of $935.5 million, with $347.1 invested in alternatives. The alternative investment portion of the portfolio saw a net gain of 9.6 percent while the fixed-income investments returned 4.4 percent.

In the first quarter of 2001, Max Re's investment portfolio managed returns of nearly 9.8 percent in a period in which the S&P 500 fell some 21.6 percent.