Hiscox Bermuda is bucking the trend by seeking to add to its already growing workforce over the next year.Jeremy Pinchin, who took over as the reinsurance company’s chief executive officer ten weeks ago, told The Royal Gazette it’s his intention for the business to grow — market conditions allowing.“We’re looking to grow our staff and we’re looking to bring in at least four or five people over the next 12 months,” Mr Pinchin said in an interview. “And we hope to maintain or even grow our proportion of Bermudians.”That outlook is refreshing in an industry in which shrinking payrolls have been the dominant trend in recent years. Hiscox set up its Bermuda reinsurance operation in Bermuda in 2006, when it also moved its corporate domicile from the UK to Bermuda.As the company has built up its business on the Island its local workforce has expanded to 43 people — 60 percent of them Bermudian — working out of offices inside Wessex House on Reid Street. Over the past two years alone, Hiscox has added 13 employees in Bermuda — 70 percent of them Bermudian.The company has also given Bermudians Nic Thuell and Matthew Sinclair a solid start with Hiscox on its graduate training programme and is seeking applicants for the scheme in 2013.Mr Pinchin said the business would not grow every year, but rather through a steady process of increasing business where and when rates were attractive and withdrawing when rates were inadequate. This approach had served Hiscox well during more than a century in the industry, he said.During the first six months of this year, Hiscox Bermuda’s business did expand, as the company capitalised on opportunities such as the spike in rates for Japanese business, a year after the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami. Gross premiums written through the Bermuda office climbed to £159.4 million ($255 million), up from £139.6 million ($223.4 million) in the first half of 2011.“Bermuda has been a very good investment for Hiscox. We have a strong reinsurance business here and a growing US health care business and I hope we can continue to generate strong returns,” Mr Pinchin said.He added that Hiscox was embracing the ‘alternative’ capital flowing into reinsurance in the shape of insurance-linked securities (ILS). The arrival of this new capital was having some impact on the market, he said, but he didn’t see it as a threat to traditional reinsurers.“We are seeing an impact from these capital inflows,” he said. “The jury’s still out as to whether this capital will have a long-term presence. My sense is that a proportion of this capital is long-term, but that traditional players will continue to be the substantive players.“This will, however, change the dynamics of the market over time.”Last month, the company joined forces with Third Point Re — a 2012 Bermuda start-up backed by hedge fund Third Point — to form a new catastrophe reinsurance fund.Hiscox will be a shareholder of the Third Point Reinsurance Investment Management Ltd, and intends to make a significant investment in the Third Point Reinsurance Opportunities Fund Ltd, the initial fund entity launched.Mr Pinchin succeeded Charles Dupplin, who left in August for personal reasons after three years here, as CEO of the Bermuda operation and is also group claims director.He is a lawyer by background and has been in the insurance industry throughout his career. He began in the broking sector and then spent 11 years as general counsel of Sedgwick Group, later serving as chairman of the firm’s Asia Pacific region.After the sale of Sedgwick to Marsh, Mr Pinchin was retained by Lloyd’s to manage the losses across the market related to the 9/11 terrorist attacks in 2001.After completing this task, he was asked by Lloyd’s to create a central vision for the management of claims, and his solution now forms the foundation of the current Lloyd’s claims strategy. In 2005, Mr Pinchin became the first claims director at Hiscox, with the objective of creating a global vision for Hiscox claims.He and his family, including seven-year-old twin boys and an 11 year-old daughter, have adjusted well to island life since their arrival in Bermuda a couple of months ago.“It’s a pleasure to have the opportunity to live here,” Mr Pinchin said, adding that his family loved the “overt friendliness” they had encountered, as well as a high quality of education for the children and great business opportunities.Mr Pinchin added that Hiscox had enjoyed a positive experience as a Bermuda company and had no reason to regret its redomsetication from the UK.“We are clear in our commitment to Bermuda as a domicile,” he said. “In particular, the regulation by the Bermuda Monetary Authority strikes a good balance between operating as an efficient regulator while being a business partner. That’s not a balance we’ve seen in the UK with the Financial Services Authority.“It’s the regulatory environment, more so than the tax environment, that is currently significant to us.”