from Bermuda companies because of better pay. A senior Bermudian executive with a local captive management firm sees it as one of the issues facing the local industry. Mrs. Irmgard Viera said: "I'm getting very distressed when we as local companies lose good staff to the exempt companies. Their salaries are that much higher. "For the ACE and EXELs of this world the money is peanuts to them. We try to keep our salaries at a reasonable level and we compare our salaries with the market. But we still lose staff on a regular basis. "I don't blame the employees for going, because you have to look out for yourself, and I've certainly done that in my life time.'' Mrs. Viera is vice president, risk management services at BF&M Ltd. She was discussing a wide range of topics involving business challenges and opportunities. She is vice president of BF&M Management Ltd. and Fortress Insurance Co. Ltd., but can still recall the day she had to be persuaded into believing that she could really understand insurance. She agrees with others in business, who believe that it is important that the referendum on Independence will now happen and settle the question. Her view from a business stand point is: "The only harm that is being done is the bickering that is going on inside our Country. Let's have the referendum and see who wants Independence and who doesn't. That's a fair way of going about it.'' "When I see headlines that Front Street is fighting with the UBP, then that's doing more harm than the actual issue.'' "Political stability is important for business,'' she said. "People tend to take advantage of their competitors' instability.'' That was a lesson learned the hard way by insurance executives when Bermuda Fire & Marine Insurance Company Ltd. (BFMIC) went into liquidation. Staff at BF&M had to grin and bear it when they heard stories from their clients that insurance competitors claimed people shouldn't do business with BF&M. "And these weren't small competitors, these were big competitors,'' she recalled. "Who you'd think would know better. So, people take advantage. If we let them succeed, then I think that's our fault.'' Mrs. Viera doesn't really want to talk about the BFMIC liquidation, saying she knows little about the situation at this stage and will simply wait for the final report. "The less said about that, the better.'' She knows how controversial some companies can be, recalling how decades ago, having assisted a company for only a handful of months, she was visited and interrogated by fraud squad officers. Whether or not there was any "funny business'' going on in the company, Mrs. Viera neither knew, nor cared. She had already decided to seek employment elsewhere. Why? "The reason I left was because there was nothing to do. I was in an office where there was nothing to do. I kept saying to myself that this is an office, so why is nothing happening? The first few months in the insurance business were not very encouraging.'' Her current employer, BF&M Management Ltd., is becoming increasingly aggressive with marketing and promotion, chasing down new avenues for business. They manage 30 exempted captives. They will have a presence in San Francisco at the Risk & Insurance Management Society (RIMS) Conference, this week. "We want to meet up with existing clients and meet others. There's always a chance to get new business out of it. We have people on the road throughout the year.'' As a woman in business, she has never been concerned about the concept of a "glass ceiling'', saying, "I have no real axe to grind. People sometimes believe that women are deliberately not being paid as well as men for doing the same job in a particular industry. "I think it often depends on your personal negotiation skills. You sometimes get what you negotiate. Maybe women just don't set their goals as high, when it comes to that. I certainly haven't suffered from that, I think. " Once there was a situation where I found out about a colleague with the same title and responsibility who was being paid more. I did bring up the subject and my boss at the time told me, "That's what he negotiated.'' "I learned from that. It was a long time ago.'' And on the subject of women in the workplace, she believes that BF&M is a leader when compared with other firms in the Island.

Mrs. Viera was born and educated in Germany. She was from Duisburg, on the Rhine, one of the largest inland ports in Europe. She joined family in Toronto and worked there for two years before one cold February 1960 she answered an advertisement in the Globe and Mail newspaper for a position in the Castle Harbour Hotel. "Germany was a cold country, but not as cold as Canada. It took me just two weeks to get here. I arrived the 28th of February and went swimming the same day!'' She managed what is now Butterfield Travel for a couple of years. In 1963, she was married to a Bermudian. After giving birth to and raising two daughters, nine years later she was back in the business world. She was asked to use her accounting background in the setting up of two self-managed captives in 1974 and 1975. She worked with Alexander International first as a secretary/administrative assistant, and then as an assistant underwriter from 1975 to 1977. She recalled, "I started as a secretary and within a very short time they wanted me to come into the underwriting part of the business. They were able to convince me that I could do it. I was very dubious, myself. I wasn't at all sure that I could do it, or wanted to do it. But they had staff coming in all the time from New York. They were very convincing and they taught me. "I was very grateful that they actually took the time to sit down with me and go over the basics of how to look at a risk.'' Within two years, she was assistant underwriter. Later, she was recruited by Crum & Forster Insurance (Bermuda) Ltd. (formerly Blades Management), as assistant underwriter (1977), underwriter (1978), assistant vice president (1979) and vice president (1980). Her responsibilities included the production and management of reinsurance treaty business, placing of reinsurance in the London market and marketing the Crum & Forster facility to brokers and captive companies. From 1981 to 1985, Mrs. Viera was vice president underwriting with INA International Insurance Company Ltd., responsible for a reinsurance portfolio covering all classes of reinsurance and the placement of proportional and excess of loss reinsurance protection in the London and US markets. From 1985 to 1988, Mrs. Viera was assistant vice president, manager of the insurance department of Marsh & McLennan Bermuda, responsible for the insurance, reinsurance and claims administration of all their captives. Mrs. Viera joined BF&M Management Ltd. in January 1988, where she held the position of general manager, and later, vice president international operations. PHOTO MRS. IRMGARD VIERA -- She is vice president, risk management services at BF&M Ltd.