An expanding insurance market on the island means “terrific” opportunities for Bermudians, an industry pioneer has said.

“The insurance market continues to expand into new lines of business,” said Brian O’Hara, founder and former chief executive officer of XL Capital Ltd. “The life reinsurance business here has exploded over the last five or six years. That has created a whole bunch of new job opportunities.”

Speaking at the Bermuda Risk Summit in a panel on the evolution of the risk industry in Bermuda, he said that the global demand for cyber-risk insurance was also amazing.

Mr O’Hara said the growth for “indigenous Bermudians” would be particularly good.

Another insurance veteran on the panel, Fiona Luck, advised young people to pick a path, but do not expect to stay on it for long.

“Develop that core competency whether it is actuarial, underwriting or whatever,” Ms Luck said. “You are going to have to be resilient and you are going to have to be agile.”

She said newcomers would need to be able to pivot quickly.

Ms Luck, a Lloyd’s Council Member, and Convex Group independent non-executive director, first came to Bermuda 41 years ago.

“It was my first big job after training as a chartered accountant in London,” Ms Luck said. “I was really fortunate, because when I came there was a massive schism in the casualty market in the US.”

She held a March 24, 1986 Time magazine cover up that read “Sorry, America Your Insurance Has Been Cancelled”.

When the story was published, premiums on liability and commercial insurance had increased dramatically over a period of two years – in some cases by 1,000 per cent or more. Twenty American states had proposals in for legal reforms ranging from greater regulatory authority over insurance rates to a major change in the legal system.

“I was really fortunate to work with Bob Clements, who was the CEO of Marsh McLennan,” she said. “Marsh and JP Morgan came up with the concept of how to address this massive casualty challenge.”

Working with insurance visionaries such as Mr Clements, who died in 2010, and Mitch Blaser (now cofounder of Mosaic Insurance), she was the junior in the room.

“There were senior people coming to Bermuda on a regular basis to work with Brian O’Hara,” she said

Mr Clements emphasised relationships, something for which the Bermuda insurance industry became known.

“One of the most important things was clients coming to believe that they had to travel to Bermuda to meet with the underwriters and get their quotes,” she said. “That gives you the sense of how long being close to the client has been important for Bermuda. Do not underestimate how powerful that is for being a leader in terms of our differentiation.”

Sir John Swan was also a panellist and talked about his early days crafting the industry for Bermuda.

“I became Premier in 1982,” he said. “At that time Bermuda was in a crisis; tourism was finished and inflation was high.”

At that time, international business was comprised of AIG, Bacardi and a couple of other companies. He wanted something more for Bermuda and the next possibility was insurance.

He said he pooled all his contacts and resources together to meet with heads of Fortune 500 companies, US President Ronald Reagan and Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, together with others.

Looking back, he said: “I feel very proud, not so much about what I have accomplished, but what Bermuda has done to make this the centre of insurance. I live with hope and promise that we can keep this partnership going.”