Independent Management Ltd. had double reason to celebrate 2009 with the appointment of a new president and CEO<\p>and by marking quarter of a century in business.

The insurance management company, which is based in Wellesley House South in Pitts Bay Road, announced the promotion of former executive vice-president Cyril Whitter to the role this week and reached the 25-year milestone this year.

The company changed ownership to one of its longest-established clients the United Group of Companies, which provides insurance to printing firms, after previous owners Simon Everett and Michael Friesenbruch decided to sell up in July.

Independent Management focused on captive management of firms started by large corporations when it set up in 1984, but has evolved from dealing with Class 1 companies launched to insure the risk of their parent bodies to catering for Class 2 outfits formed by multiple shareholders and Class 3 fully fledged re/insurers.

Having been set up by former president Peter Strong, who retired from the post in<\p>September last year, the company has grown to a staff base of four, including Mr. Whitter, senior vice-presidents Adrienne Hintz and Allan Beales, and vice-president Natalie King, managing 30 to 35 insurance firms today.

Mr. Whitter, who describes his career as a true "Bermuda story", graduated from the Berkeley Institute and enrolled at Bermuda College for a three-year Diploma in Accounting in 1975, prior to joining Jardine Pinehurst Management Company Ltd. in his first job managing captives from day one and working his way up the ranks to the position of senior vice-president, before leaving to take on a new challenge at Independent Management after 15 years with the company.

"I joined Independent Management Ltd. in 1993 and my responsibility at the time was to manage a group of insurance companies," he said.

"My role has evolved essentially to where I was second-in-command, working directly with Peter Strong and I took on a lot more responsibility on the day-to-day management side.

"I got heavily involved in business development and company incorporations, from the concept of the company to making sure they are capitalised, licensed and rated to write business.

"Now I have taken on overall control of the company and my responsibility is to run the entire operation with the assistance of a very strong team with a great depth of experience and knowledge.

"We work together so very well that one of the reasons that we have become so successful at what we do is because the team is so strong. The other thing that we have mastered is the art if back up and support because we are so closely knit anyone of us can cover for another."

Mr. Whitter said one of the biggest challenges facing the industry as a whole has been trying to change outsiders' perceptions of Bermuda as a secretive tax haven to a bona fide top financial services centre.

He said the Ministry of Finance's hard work and effort to successfully complete the signing of the required 12 tax information exchange agreements, which saw Bermuda moved off the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development's 'grey<\p>list' onto the 'white list' of jurisdictions had gone a long way to convincing prospective clients that the Island is the place to do business.

"We have been able to make the case that Bermuda is a first class jurisdiction for insurance for Fortune 500 companies trying to find insurance for their various organisations and that has only been strengthened as a result of the latest developments with coming onto the 'white list'," he said.

Mr. Whitter said that there were many fewer sounds coming out of Washington about Bermuda and shutting down tax havens and Government had been working closely with its US counterparts to assure them of the role the Island plays in the international business.

But he reckons it will be a case of wait and see what happens with the Neal<\p>Bill, which was introduced last month by Representative Richard Neal (Democrat, Massachusetts), chairman of the Sub-committee on Select Revenue Measures of the House Ways and Means Committee, and if passed, would serve to increase the effective US tax rate for the Island's insurance companies with subsidiaries in the US.

"We have to allow it to work its way through the process and I think that hopefully at the end of the day the reality of Bermuda will win out," he said.

"The reality is that Bermuda is a significant insurance market and it has its place in the overall scheme of the world insurance market.

"People will hopefully realise that Bermuda is not somewhere you can go to avoid paying tax [EmDash] in fact, the vast majority of my clients are paying tax currently, but rather Bermuda is a one-stop shop for all your insurance needs."

Mr. Whitter has seen a number of changes during his time at the company, including a move from Williams House in the centre of town to its current location in 2001.

"During the course of my career, the fact that I was Bermudian was never an issue for me, the issue was providing the best quality service to our clients, which was front and centre to everything," he said.

"The rest will come as a natural progression and offering that standard of service is going to open doors for you."

He believes there are interesting times ahead for independent insurance managers with the speculation surrounding Marsh's mooted takeover of International Advisory Services [EmDash] the Island's biggest independent management business [EmDash] and the potential challenges and opportunities it presents to rival firms.