Maths wizard David Roache has gone to the top of the charts — in music as well as his profession.

Mr Roache, 35, has been a successful reggae performer and now he has been promoted to head of risk excess at Hiscox Re.

The Bermudian graduate in commerce with a speciality in actuarial science said: “I had an uncle who was an actuary and my parents told me what he did.

“He was good at maths and so was I — and I found out how much money he earned.”

Mr Roache, who began his career with Rosemont Re after graduating in 2003, joined Hiscox in 2009 as an actuarial analyst before moving over to underwriting a year later and winning promotion a month ago.

He said: “I was very pleased to be promoted — it was a portfolio I was working on for a while and I knew it inside out. It was great to get recognition for that.”

Mr Roache added: “I now head the risk excess line of business for Hiscox Re, encompassing platforms in Bermuda, London and Paris, with responsibility for the strategic direction, underwriting and oversight of this portfolio with worldwide annual gross written premium of around $100 million.”

He was shortlisted for Young Underwriter of the Year by industry magazine Insurance Insider this year and credited for his role in bringing a new product, risk aggregate protection, to the market, with more than $1 billion sold annually.

Mr Roache said: “I would say that in the reinsurance industry as a whole there are lots of different facets to it.”

He explained his own mathematics skills helped him in the fields of pricing work and portfolio management.

But Mr Roache added: “There are other jobs within reinsurance which might appeal to others, like analysts, who look at hurricane models and seismic activity around the world — that’s interesting, outside of maths.

“Underwriting is making decisions on the amount of risk you should be taking in working and working with clients and brokers to come to an agreement — that’s a negotiating position.”

And he said: “There’s a lot of travelling involved as well, which is appealing to young people. You travel five to ten times a year for business.”

Mr Roache has notched up trips to Ireland, Germany, London and New York, well as to the US and Canada.

But he also found time, particularly earlier in his career, to work with international reggae star Collie Buddz, a friend from their primary school days, while they were both in Toronto, Mr Buddz working on his music career and Mr Roache studying at the Rotman School of business at the University of Toronto.

He worked on Collie Buddz’s self-titled 2007 album, which sat at the top of the reggae Billboard chart for 12 weeks and stayed in the top ten for more than a year.

Mr Roache said: “I collaborated with him on the album, as well as other tracks which were released as singles. In 2009, I released a single called Roses which topped various regional reggae charts around the world.”

Mr Roache said: “I still have a recording studio at my house and I’m working with C’Daynger and I’m still doing some work with Collie — I was out in Miami with him recently.”

He added: At the start of my career, it was a real juggling act between doing music shows and working — nowadays it’s mostly working.”

Mr Roache said: “I think the secret to success is working hard and building relationships.

“The only value I had, other than working out whether a price is good or bad, was being able to bring business in through the door.”