ARIEL Re founder Don Kramer was recently honoured with a Lifetime Achievement Award by the Bermuda Insurance Institute (BII). That recognition of his contribution to the reinsurance industry represents just one of many achievements, which beg the question: What hasn't the insurance veteran accomplished? His life flies from strength to strength - Wall Street analyst, model marriage, founder of five start-ups, and a comedian to boot.

"I'm very lucky," he said, playing down the acumen that sparked his good fortune. "Maybe I can fool most people most of the time. But really, I'm just a kid from Brooklyn."

The BII ceremony marked a decade since that organisation first began recognising key players in the island's insurance and reinsurance industries.

As explained by the BII, the nomination criteria is simple, with persons chosen who have "a commitment to making a significant contribution to the insurance industry in Bermuda and promoting a positive image of the Bermuda market as a whole".

In addition to paying homage to the founder of Ariel Re, the BII named Axis chief executive and president John Charman as the Reinsurance Person of the Year and Gino Smith, assistant vice president and underwriter at XL Re, as the Young Reinsurance Person of the Year.

Said Mr. Kramer of his recognition: "I love Bermuda. I've had such good fortune there. I've been rewarded in so many other ways but the award means a lot. It really does. It was a very nice thing, very humbling." He earned a Bachelor's degree in economics from Brooklyn College and a Master's of Business Administration - in economics and investments - from New York University.

As a graduate student, he learned from one of the pre-eminent economists during the 1980s, Henry Kaufman, known as "Dr. Doom" for predicting high interest rates. Most Master's candidates complete their thesis and receive a handshake and a diploma. Mr. Kramer's earned him the prestigious Graham and Dodd Award, established in 1960 to recognise excellence in financial writing.

"What happened is I was taking my Master's degree and needed to get my grade point up so I wrote a great thesis on life insurance and received the Graham and Dodd Award for it," he explained.

The financial industry took note of his work, an experience that led Mr. Kramer to Wall Street as an insurance analyst.

As the industry giant tells it, he ventured into reinsurance on his retirement from that arena. His first Bermuda start-up was Oppenheimer Re.

"I first came to Bermuda in '74 and started a company unsuccessfully, but I learned a lot," he stated.

Mr. Kramer returned to the island in 1993, as chairman and CEO of Tempest Reinsurance, a property catastrophe reinsurer he founded in 1992, in the wake of Hurricane Andrew. He became vice chairman of Ace (now Ace Tempest Re) in 1996, after that company acquired his. On retirement from the board of directors in 2004, he moved into the role of CEO.

He founded his present company, Ariel Re, following the devastating 2005 hurricane season. His prediction for 2008 is optimistic. And he expressed confidence in Bermuda's continued success as a domicile for reinsurers, partially because of the island's ability in handling two "devastating" hurricane seasons - 2004 and 2005.

"I think we will see some activity however when you talk about a one in one thousand storm, a one in one thousand storm doesn't happen every day," he declared. "The propensity, the possibility is there, but we're hopeful we'll be okay.

"2004 was the worst year on record following Andrew in '93. Bermuda handled it brilliantly. It demonstrated Bermuda's ability to stand up in the face of crises. The strength of Bermuda is the concentration of talent on the island and its density of capital. Ireland, Dublin, there are companies there to a minor degree. In many ways they're hedging their bets - most businesses have a disaster recovery plan - but as long as Bermuda hangs onto its talent and capital it will be secure. Generally there's no great incentive to create new companies right now."

Guests at the BII awards dinner were introduced to another side of Mr. Kramer. Although many were familiar with his love for and patronage of dance, less knew of his comedic talent.

Michael Butt, board chairman and director of Axis Capital Holdings Ltd, apprised them of that fact, informing the audience he once spent a few hours throwing words at Mr. Kramer, who would come up with a joke based on each.

"He tested me (that night)," Mr. Kramer admitted. "I have all these jokes from my days as a stand-up comic. So I can come up with a joke for most occasions - but it can sometimes be very inappropriate.

"I've always loved comedy and I once had a set routine. I would go to fraternity parties or dances - I was thrown out of some of the best colleges in the United States (because of my routine). By those standards what I was doing was racy but today they're things you could say on the Disney Channel."

His character was a little like Andrew Dice Clay, a comedian popular in the 1980s although his language was far less profane.

"My character was a thug. I wore a black, motorcycle jacket and did a routine looking at preppies from his point of view as a thug."

His love for the arts stems from his high school days and is also played out in a cause he is passionate about - the National Dance Foundation of Bermuda.

"I am chairman of the National Dance Foundation and emceed (its most recent fundraiser, Dancing with the Stars) with (Bank of Bermuda CEO) Philip Butterfield. The year before, I closed the show dancing," he laughed. And then admitted: "For sure it's not a talent."

Mr. Kramer attributes his involvement in that project to the urging of former communications director at Ace, Wendy Davis Johnson.

"I said I wanted to do something to give to the community and she said dance would be great. We lavish so much money on boys and not so much on women and yet dancing accomplishes the same social benefits - poise, discipline, it prevents obesity, so many things that are constructive.

"We've built the National Dance Foundation into a high-profile operation - the American Ballet Theatre holds four master classes here a year in conjunction with it. It became a passion and I wound up on the board of the ABT and, for a time, the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts."

Mr. Kramer and his wife, a successful interior designer and former model, recently celebrated 25 years of marriage.