under the leadership of new chairman, Jan Spiering.

What was once just a brainstorming tool for business development may become the architect of a strategic plan for international business.

Mr. Spiering, the managing partner of chartered accountants Ernst & Young/Kempe & Whittle, has indicated that the advisory body, will now become more of an action body.

The six-year-old IBF has been comprised of 30 or 40 business people who meet once a quarter for an entire morning at the Cabinet Office in the very room where the government cabinet makes its decisions.

Because the IBF is an advisory body to Government, the Minister of Finance is normally a part of the meeting.

Because of busy travel schedules, the meetings rarely have attracted more than two-thirds of the membership. But Mr. Spiering believes there is merit in considering the reduction of the group's size. He also believes there may be some consideration given to varying the current number of four meetings a year.

"I'm not sure that we accomplish as much with a huge group,'' he said. "I think that it will be a smaller group, that will be as representative as possible of the various sectors in international business.

"I think in the past, those chosen included international business leaders and then geographical needs were taken into account. People with particular knowledge of the Far East, for example, would be chosen.

"In the future, we will want to focus on products. We have a huge insurance community, and then we will have to consider focusing on the investment management community. That would determine the geography of where you are most likely to get your customers from.'' Mr. Spiering, who has sat on the committee for three years under past chairman, David Lines, convenes his first meeting as chairman January 8.

"The first thing we are likely to discuss is how to best get the structure in place that will get things done. There are a lot of good ideas, but we have to decide which ones to implement.

"We can't decide an entire strategic plan for international business in one meeting. But we could look at obvious limitations here, such as housing and education needs, the required skills and the work force.'' The IBF has been involved in the Country's business planning. It also was instrumental in ensuring the emergence of the "new'', more effective BIBA (Bermuda International Business Association).

"The way that I see going forward,'' said Mr. Spiering, "is to have the IBF working toward trying to bind together all of these organisations. BIBA represents the local service providers. There is the IAC (Insurance Advisory Committee) which has marketing and regulatory roles.

"There is also the ICD (International Companies Division of the Chamber of Commerce) which is a collection of the international companies with a physical presence, companies trying to ensure their views are known to Government. This is also a discussion point through the Chamber for anything they feel is of mutual interest.

"I would like to see official representatives from all of those bodies on the IBF, and representatives from some of the larger companies that we have here.

That would include banks, law firms and accountants, but also some of our larger customers.'' Mr. Spiering concedes that while Bermuda has done well for many years in attracting international business, he is not sure that it was all planned.

"Some of it was probably lucky,'' he said. "But we need to now ensure, particularly with the huge increase in competition that we have from all these other jurisdictions, that we are better planned. We have to better understand our strengths and with our limited resources, we have to make sure we use them very effectively.

"We need to really listen to our customers more. I don't think that we have done that as well as we should have done in the past. The Minister of Finance is interested in all of this and I believe that for the IBF that role is the primary role.

"It will have to listen to the current and future needs of the customer and ensure that we grow Bermuda's international business pie appropriately considering some of the limitations an Island our size has.'' FACT FILE Facts about Jan J. Spiering, the new chairman of the International Business Forum: AGE -- 45.

EDUCATION -- Qualified as a chartered accountant in the United Kingdom.

EXPERIENCE -- Has lived in Bermuda since 1979 and is a fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of England and Wales and is a member of thge Bermuda Institute. The managing partner of Ernst & Yong's Bermuda office, he was a founding member of E&Y's international investment companies committee on which he still serves.

FAMILY -- He has a wife, Barbara, and a son, David.

CHANGES AFOOT -- Jan Spiering