XL Capital boss Mike McGavick urged US lawmakers to remember what the Bermuda insurance market has done to support the US economy before considering law changes that could harm the Island.

Mr. McGavick made his comments to an audience dominated by insurance professionals as he accepted his award as the Bermuda Insurance Institute’s 2009 (Re) insurance Person of the Year.

Others to be honoured were David Ezekiel, chairman of Marsh & McLennan (Bermuda) and the long-serving chairman of the Association of Bermuda International Companies, who received a Lifetime Achievement Award.

The Young (Re) insurance Person of the Year Award went to Kirsten Faria, senior vice-president of health care lines at Allied World Assurance Company.

Mr. McGavick told guests at the awards dinner at the Fairmont Hamilton Princess hotel on Saturday night that governments’ role in business was growing. Part of this was down to the fact that some in the financial services sector had “done some dumb things” and governments wanted to put that right.

Insurers, he said, should continue to focus on what they contributed to the economy — allowing their clients to push ahead do great things free of worry.

“In Washington, a few foolish people want to destroy Bermuda to make some more money,” the XL chief executive officer said.

“Let’s remind them that we have been contributing to their well-being for a long time and we want to do it for a long time more.”

His comments were greeted with rapturous applause.

Bermuda companies provide about 40 percent of the property-catastrophe reinsurance for the US and have paid out more than $30 billion in US claims in recent years.

A proposal in US President Barack Obama’s budget aims to limit tax deductions for reinsurers that cede a large portion of their US premiums to non-US affiliates. If enacted, the move would impact some Bermuda-based insurance companies with US subsidiaries. The proposal is similar to a bill put forward in 2008 by Representative Richard Neal.

A group of US insurers is backing the proposal, but the European Union has written to top US officials to call discriminatory and a violation of free trade agreements.

Mr. McGavick received his award for leading XL through the most turbulent time in the business insurer’s history. The company lost $2.6 billion in 2008, as it extricated itself from reinsurance agreements and guarantees for its former bond insurer affiliate Security Capital Assurance (now known as Syncora Holdings), which had been hit by its exposure to US mortgages during a severe property slump.

The CEO, who succeeded Brian O’Hara in May 2008, led the effort to raise more than $3 billion on the capital markets — just weeks before the collapse of Lehman Brothers caused credit to freeze up worldwide.

Last year, the company returned to profit, as a leaner organisation more focused on its core underwriting activities and de-risked its investment portfolio. With a stock price rise of 395 percent, XL was the biggest climber on the S&P 500 Index last year.

Mr. McGavick was keen to share the credit, saying that his award was a symbol of the successful turnaround achieved by XL’s entire staff.

“The reason that XL did not disintegrate was that people cared about each other and about the entity,” he said. “The main reason they cared was the culture formed by Brian O’Hara.”

He added that at an event held to celebrate the fact that XL made it through, Mr. O’Hara had put it best, he added. “Brian said, ‘we have watched this whole story of too big to fail — at XL we are just too good to fail’.”

Mr. Ezekiel’s Lifetime Achievement Award was in recognition of his distinguished career and his efforts to promote a sound environment for the international business community in Bermuda.

For the past 14 years, as chairman of ABIC, he has influenced and driven change through partnerships with regulatory, Government and professional organisations. He was the founding partner and CEO of International Advisory Services (IAS), which grew to become the largest independent in the captive management field, before it was acquired by Marsh at the end of 2009.

Mr. Ezekiel was educated at Sherwood College, Naintal, India and undertook his articles of clerkship in London. He became a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales in 1971 and was admitted to Fellowship in 1978. In the early 1970s he pursued and received his Masters of Science degree in Business Administration majoring in investment analysis, from the Graduate Business Centre of the City University, London.

Before setting up captive management firm IAS in 1981, Mr. Ezekiel was a partner in leading accounting firm Moore, Stephens and Butterfield, now KPMG Bermuda.

Mr. Ezekiel is a keen golfer, fanatical supporter of English Premier League champions Chelsea Football Club and an avid bridge player (he has written the bridge column in The Royal Gazette and the Mid-Ocean News before that for more than two decades).

He praised his ABIC and IAS colleagues, saying that his award was “for choosing the right people”. Among those people were two of his most influential colleagues in the early days at IAS, Terry Power and Su Power, as well as Diana Fearis, his current assistant.

He also paid tribute to the work of ABIC executive director Richard Winchell.

Capping his speech, Mr. Ezekiel said: “I’m here because of a ton of people. We have an amazing industry and an amazing country here. We have a business model that’s just incomparable. I’m proud to be a part of this community.”

The Young (Re) insurance Person of the Year Award, won by Ms Faria, acknowledges an individual under 35 who has made a big contribution to their organisation or the insurance market in general or has through promoting professionalism through education, conduct or ethics.

Ms Faria is senior vice-president of health care lines at Allied World Assurance Company. She joined the company in 2002 as an assistant underwriter and has rapidly risen through the underwriting ranks, building on her industry knowledge and assuming increased responsibilities.

As product line manager and member of the senior management team of Allied World’s Bermuda and international platform, she is responsible for the P&L of a significant premium portfolio which routinely proves to be the company’s highest return on equity producing unit.

She has meanwhile displayed her skills as a teacher, coach, manager and role model for individuals of all ages who believe in the virtues of work ethic, determination and professionalism.

Ms Faria said that qualities to succeed included passion, dedication and creativity, but she also stressed the importance of mentorship. She named several of the mentors, including Allied World CEO Scott Carmilani, whose guidance had helped her to progress.

She reached out to the industry leaders in the audience, suggesting that the success of a company “is not defined solely by its bottom line, but also by its human capital”.

“Invest in your biggest assets, your people,” Ms Faria said. “What I’m talking about is your time and attention, not just your money. Keep caring about their development and progression. Be a mentor.”

She urged young people making their way in the industry to “never stop being curious and never stop asking questions”.