A Bermuda market reinsurance broker has been elected new designee representative of the 28,000-member US Chartered Property Casualty Underwriters (CPCU) Society, to represent new members of the CPCU's north east region for the next two years.

Vice president of reinsurance broking at J&H Marsh & McLennan Global Broking (Bermuda) Ltd., Mike Douglas, has been elected to give the new designates a voice at the national level of the CPCU.

He is one of a half a dozen `reps' in the six US regions who must liaise with this year's graduating class of 2,408 new members.

His election comes, even though the CPCU has no overseas chapters. Bermuda is a sub-chapter of the New York chapter of the CPCU Society.

Mr. Douglas' responsibilities include two meetings of the northeast region and an annual meeting of the national body, this year scheduled for October 23-25 in San Diego.

It will be there that he will be conferred his own CPCU membership, having been among the graduating class this year -- one of a record six from Bermuda.

The CPCU requires the successful sitting of ten examinations for credits over a period that can last between three and ten years, including a paper on ethics.

Mr. Douglas, Bermuda Insurance Institute president and Ace Insurance Ltd.

senior vice president Larry Lombardo and Ace Insurance assistant vice president financial lines, Paul Wollmann, have been trying to develop a fully-fledged CPCU chapter here.

Mr. Douglas said, "Larry is president of the Bermuda CPCU sub-chapter and Paul is secretary.

"We are looking to have direct representation on the governing body in the US. And we see this as an opportunity to really put the case for Bermuda right in with the CPCU Society at a national level.

"The Bermuda Insurance Institute (BII) does a lot of work with the CPCU Society which has agreed to provide two examination exemptions for holders of the Bermuda Insurance Diploma (BID). As of this year, a BID is automatically worth two credits.

"It makes sense for the American CPCU to be a significant qualification offered to Bermudians, because most of the business comes from the US. And it's good that the BII and the CPCU are on such good terms.'' Mr. Douglas said that his voluntary service on the New Designee Committee is being supported by his employer.

His duties include attendance at overseas meetings and initiating contact with all new regional members a year, which this year includes about 500 people in eight US states.

"I'm required to give them all a pep talk and find out what their concerns and interests are, and make sure I act as a conduit to funnel information back to the main society at the national level.'' Mr. Douglas worked in London for 11 years, underwriting for a reinsurance company, before coming to Bermuda to work for the liquidators of Mentor Insurance for four years.

In 1994, he joined Johnson & Higgins, which as a result of a recent merger, is J&H Marsh & McLennan (Bermuda) Ltd.

Apart from his designation in the CPCU, Mr. Douglas is a Fellow of the British Chartered Insurance Institute (FCII), an Associate in Risk Management (ARM), Associate in Reinsurance (ARe), Associate in Claims (AIC) and an Associate in Premium Auditing (APA).

He has also lectured at the Bermuda Insurance Institute on insurance and reinsurance topics for the Associate of the Chartered Insurance Institute (ACII) courses, CPCU courses and the local qualification, Bermuda Insurance Market (BIM).