With the precision of a grand master, the controllers of Bermuda-based insurer, ACE Ltd., are executing a chess-like strategy designed to position the company to compete for profitable business on a worldwide basis.

Their new knight, Roger Gillett, is just the latest indication of how serious ACE is about culling the brightest and the best of the Bermuda market.

But for Mr. Gillett, this was a bold move, too. In one fell swoop, he is off on another adventure with another leading company. He leaves what must have become an untenable position at J&H Marsh McLennan. He is a top gun in an organisation overwhelmed by a former competitor.

The fall out from the merger of Marsh & McLennan with his former company, Johnson & Higgins, is not something he would talk to The Royal Gazette about.

But the fact that he is moving on at this time speaks volumes by itself. Mr.

Gillett was surely forced to sit up and take stock of his career and his future after the merger.

Corporate consolidation often brings a corporate shuffle that works out better for some than others. It is just the way it is. It sometimes requires the fitting together of two completely different -- maybe even conflicting -- corporate cultures.

The predator company's culture may be all that survives, and, to remain as an employee, it has to be one that you can succeed in. For some staff, the immediate result is a "no-fault divorce.'' His job at J&H involved the development of alternative risk financing products, principally captives. ACE wants him to assist in developing new products for them and they expect to capitalise on his contacts, established over many years.

He said, "It is exciting for me, because ACE is a company that clearly doesn't stand still. It just couldn't be better to have the sort of role that I'm being given in a company that is quite determined to develop its product line and develop its business generally.

"I'm not taking this lightly, either. This should be a real challenge. But I'm excited to get on with it.'' His job as of November 3 will include identifying new lines of business for ACE, adapting existing products, or breaking through into new markets.

His former Johnson & Higgins boss, Brian Hall, remained chairman of the Insurance Advisory Committee (IAC) after cashing in his J&H chips. And Mr.

Gillett is still getting on with work as chairman of the IAC's marketing committee.

He said, "My move to ACE does not diminish my interest in the IAC marketing committee at all. In fact, if anything, it will heighten that interest.'' That committee recently completed a report on Bermuda's expanding market, which concluded there was potential for only low impact threats to the success of the Bermuda market. The SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) analysis was an exercise to ensure, said Mr. Gillett, there was no complacency. His view is that such an exercise should be completed every two years.

Over the 20 years in the Bermuda market, he has seen the captive insurer undergo a metamorphosis.

He said, "Captives were fairly undeveloped and quite basic 20 years ago.

Subsequently, we have seen a huge development in both their number and sophistication. At the same time, that business is being used as a base to develop other insurance products.

"At one point there was the negative period when some of the captives got involved in non-related business. It was the days of naive capacity.

"No one can consider the capacity we have here today to be naive. Not by a long shot. It's quite the opposite. We have a very responsible market, which is not as prepared to compete on price as many of the other markets are.'' The SWOT analysis highlighted the fact that Bermuda's image was so high profile in the international trade press, that it was both a strength and a weakness. He said, "It's a strength in the sense that people know we are here. We're talked about a lot. But it is a weakness in that anything that happens in this marketplace of a negative nature, gets under a microscope much more than it would in any other marketplace.

"Some of that is driven by envy. People are envious of the capital that has been attracted to Bermuda. And as much as this market works in a very complementary way with other markets, that envy creeps into how negative things are reported about Bermuda.'' Roger Gillett