From his fourth floor office at the Bank of Bermuda's Compass Point building Peter Mellor can see the former Bermudiana hotel, a pink hulk reminding him of one project he was unable to help get going.

During his five years as head of the bank's investment division Mr. Mellor was involved with The Bermuda Financial Centre Ltd.'s ill-fated attempt to develop the site. The investment division was unable to secure the complete financing package for the project. ACE Ltd. and EXEL Ltd. subsequently took over the project.

"I was deeply involved in Bermudiana,'' he said. "It was a disappointment we were unable to pull that off, but it was very close.'' But that disappointment is only a slight blot in his five years as head of the bank's investment division. Now that he's leaving the bank to return to London he can sit back, put it behind him, and point to his other contributions toward developing an offshore capital market.

On a wall on his office he has put up a map of the airport and surrounding land, a map he occassionaly glances at to keep in sight his vision of what Bermuda could develop into, he said.

He has sat on two committees on the development of the former baselands, including one that submitted a paper to the Government outlining various proposals for financing development.

"Yes I'm running the investment division but the map is a constant reminder of what Bermuda's future could be,'' he said.

He personally believes the former baselands could be developed into an economic zone and offshore financial centre, an area in which there are no or light restrictions on planning, immigration and ownership.

"That's what I saw and encouraged -- not that it is necessarily going to happen,'' he said. "What the government eventually does is an entirely different matter. You could have a lot of fun. No planning, no immigration, no 60/40 rule, an economic zone that was free. You would have some controls. You could create a profit tax. You could provide revenue for Bermuda, employment for Bermuda and growth for Bermuda going forward.'' Mr. Mellor emphasises during an interview that he was speaking from a personal point of view, and not as a bank employee. Mick Suter, who heads the division's fixed income section, has been temporarily appointed to run the investment division until the bank announces a formal replacement.

Mellor eyes new challenges "I enjoyed really lifting people's sights to see that Bermuda could be the offshore capital market,'' he continued. "It's standing right there in front of everybody. It's within reach. The stock exchange is at the centre of it.'' As head of the investment division Mr. Mellor, 53, was also involved with helping develop the Bermuda Stock Exchange (BSX). He has helped with the revitalisation of the BSX, which is attracting membership and listings by foreign companies.

"Today it has staff and infrastructure and it is just about to move into the next stage,'' he said. "Its whole theme is developing the offshore capital market. It means other people will come here. Nomura came here because they see that Bermuda can be a global international market. That dream is becoming a reality. That's a great thrill for me just to come and light a little fire and see it burn brightly. It's quite stimulating.'' Mr. Mellor describes himself as somewhat of a fix-it man, someone companies hire to help start up or restructure financial services operations. That's been the story of his career so far, he said. He was responsible for setting up Hoare Govett's Hong Kong operations in 1972. Bankers Trust hired him in 1980 to establish an international investment management business in London.

There he also formed Johnson Capital Management. Three years later he founded Beutel Goodman International and developed a global fixed-income product for the US pension market.

When he came to the bank in 1992 his challenge was to tie together all of the bank's investment businesses under one management team. Now his five year plan is in place he believes its time to move on. "I came to do a specific task, which was to reorganise and restructure and revitalise the investment section five years ago,'' he said. "All of what I've done in my life is startup or restructuring or mending businesses. What you normally do is put a five year plan in place and you set off. When it reaches fruition you then start to think about where you go from there. For the last 18 months it's been quite hard being in Bermuda with all the family and other personal committments back in London. There seemed to come a moment when the plan was complete and really very successful.'' He said that during his tenure the investment division has more than doubled its assets under management and profits.

"I have always enjoyed the thrill and the challenge of restructuring or starting up things,'' he said. "You have to have the characteristics of patience and determination otherwise it's not going to work. You have to stick to it and be determined and at the end it comes right. It's hard work and you're never the real beneficiary of that effort.'' During his time at the investment division Mr. Mellor also oversaw the installation of a new computer system. This year the bank bought a Jersey-based investment house which had client assets of $800 million, increasing its reach into European financial markets. He also oversaw the startup of the investment division's money market funds and its Global Manager fund.

"Global Manager is the toolbox of indices which I designed as the next executible step ahead,'' he said. "In our business you must always have something that's the next step. Global Manager is the next generation of investment management.'' While he describes the bank's mutual funds as good performers, he is concerned about the recent slide in the bank's International Equity Fund, which was hurt by investments in Japan.

"The recent performance is mending very rapidly,'' he said. "Japan hit us very hard, but basically the long term structure is there. It was a product that I had to rebuild completely and made into a serious product.'' Work still needs to be done in the investment division toward attracting more institutional investors to do business with the bank, he said.

"The private client side has been very strong and is growing very rapidly,'' he said. "The institutional side has yet to shift to grow better. More work needs to be done. That's really a function of a track record. You have to make a good track record first before the institutions will buy. With the track record now in pretty good shape I think they are ready to go talk to the institutions in Bermuda.'' Does his departure from the bank signal a changing of the guard, with Charles Vaughan-Johnson being replaced as president and chief executive officer by Bermudian Henry Smith? It was Mr. Vaughan-Johnson who hired him in 1992. It's a question he prefers not to answer.

"That's one of those questions you didn't ask,'' he said. "The bank has given me the opportunity to show people what can be done in the investment management and brokering business in the offshore capital market. If you could say one day that the offshore capital market has been developed in Bermuda that will stand out as a summation of everything that I wanted to do.''