ACE INA Holdings, part of ACE Ltd in Bermuda, has announced that Dennis Reding, president and CEO of ACE USA has been appointed to the post of president of ACE INA Holdings.

The chairman and CEO of ACE INA, Dominic Frederico, said that Mr. Reding's exemplary performance at the helm of ACE USA had led to the expansion of his role in the ACE organisation.

"Dennis has overseen the growth and development of ACE USA's insurance operations which has included assisting with the integration of ACE USA (formerly Westchester Speciality Group) and the US property casualty business we acquired from CIGNA Corporation in 1999," said Mr. Frederico. "As president of ACE USA he has met or exceeded every business objective he set while navigating some of the most difficult conditions on record." Mr. Reding began his 30-year career in the insurance industry when he joined Fireman's Fund as an underwriter. He quickly advanced through the ranks to Zone Executive in 1987 with responsibility in a 22-state territory. In 1992 he was instrumental in forming Westchester Specialty Group from a number of Crum and Forster entities, including The London Agency and Industrial Underwriters. He was president and CEO of Westchester Specialty Group from 19993 until 1998 when the organisation was acquired by ACE.

ACE Ltd has also announced the promotion of Wendy Davis Johnson to the position of director of global communications.

Having joined ACE in 1997 as Director of Communications to establish the communications function at ACE Ltd., her new role entails working closely with the communications personnel of the ACE Group of Companies to establish group wide programmes and policies that support and enhance ACE's image and reputation as a premier global insurance and reinsurance organisation.

Vice chairman of ACE Ltd. with responsibility for communications and external affairs, Don Kramer said: "I'm delighted to announce Wendy's appointment to the position of director of global communications. In the four years since she joined ACE, Wendy has worked hard to establish the ACE brand on a global basis as well as introduce a wide variety of external and internal communications programmes that support the management of our brand."

E-business solutions provider Paragon Bermuda yesterday announced the appointment of Russell Pannone to director of software development best practices.

Mr. Pannone's role is to support Paragon's initiative to implement world class processes in software development and he has designed a comprehensive framework called the Capacity Delivery Process (CDP) which is unique to Paragon, yet adheres to industry standards.

Mr. Pannone said yesterday that Paragon needed to formalise their way of satisfying customers through software development and called on his expertise and experience to make it happen.

He said: "At the highest level, CDP is a recipe for success, and success is measured by how closely we satisfy customer needs." By following a ten step process that has been specifically designed for software projects, CDP will enable Paragon to deliver high quality software solutions that meet each client's unique business needs and remain on time and within budget.

In addition to the ten step CDP framework, Mr. Pannone has incorporated into CDP six best practices that have proven successful in software development programmes.

Mr. Pannone will be hosting a series of free workshops to begin in mid-November in order to explain software development best practices and Paragon's CDP to interested companies.He will also offer his expertise to clients as a senior consultant.

Glen Henderson, Managing Director of Paragon Bermuda said: "Russell has a strong background in the software development life cycle. His appointment reflects the importance we place on best practices at Paragon so that we can offer our clients superior quality cost-effective software solutions and I am delighted to welcome Russell to the Paragon team."

Mr. Pannone brings extensive experience of software development best practices to Paragon which he gained while integrating people, processes and technology in different industries across the U.S.

Prior to joining Paragon Bermuda, Mr. Pannone spent twenty years in all phases of the software development cycle, from requirements analysis to component based development to deployment.