PartnerRe chief executive officer Patrick Thiele is to take over as the new chairman of the Association of Bermuda Insurers and Reinsurers (ABIR).

He will succeed Axis Capital chairman Michael Butt at the helm of the board of the major industry representative body for the two-year term spanning 2010 and 2011.

ABIR said yesterday that Constantine (Dinos) Iordanou, president and CEO of Arch Capital Group, will become deputy chairman of the board and Michael McGavick, CEO of XL Capital, will be second deputy chairman.

Brad Kading, ABIR president and executive director, said Mr. Butt had led the ABIR board during a period with public policy challenges in many areas including US solvency regulation, tax, property catastrophe, European and international solvency regulatory standards. His stewardship has been greatly valued by the association, Mr. Kading noted.

He said ABIR's leadership team was composed of talented business executives with many years experience running global insurance groups.

The association members wrote collectively $61 billion in global gross written premiums stemming from businesses in more than 200 countries in 2008. The members of the association employ 31,000 globally including 1,800 people in Bermuda.