Jim Blankenship is the partner in charge of the tax department of the Bermuda office of KPMG.

Mr. Blankenship specialises in the United States taxation of foreign corporations, international insurance operations and alternative risk transfer agreements. He received a degree in accounting and taxation from the University of Texas, and has previously served as an instructor at the University of Texas and the United States Naval Academy, and as an Associate Professor at Texas A&M University.

Mr. Blankenship is a frequent speaker and is a co-author of the definitive treatise Federal Taxation of Insurance Companies published by Research Institute of America and a contributor to the Insurance Tax Review and Journal of International Taxation .

Alan C. Cossar , a Bermudian, is president and CEO of Aon Insurance Managers (Bermuda) Ltd. and executive director for Bermuda and the Caribbean Region.

With over 20 years' experience in the captive insurance industry, he has extensive experience in the utilisation of captives by various entities and industries. Mr. Cossar has had management involvement in many of the domiciles in which AIM operates including Barbados, Bermuda, British Columbia, Cayman, the Netherlands Antilles and Singapore, giving him a broad perspective on the relative merits of each domicile.

Matt Damsker has been the editor-in-chief of Risk & Insurance magazine since the start of 1996. A career journalist and editor, he also has served as managing editor of Human Resource Executive magazine and as a managing editor in the magazine division of Rodale Press Inc.

Mr. Damsker's background includes a varied newspaper career reporting on business and culture for such dailies as the Los Angeles Times , the Hartford Courant , San Diego Union and The Bulletin in Philadelphia. Mr. Damsker studied journalism at the Annenburg School of Communications at Temple University in Philadelphia and joined The Bulletin as a columnist and reporter. He served as bureau editor for the Los Angeles Times in San Diego county. His reporting in San Diego brought him a Sigma Delta Chi award and a James M. Copley Ring of Truth award for feature writing.

Roger Gillett is the senior vice president of ACE Insurance Company, Ltd.

Prior to joining ACE, Mr. Gillett spent 20 years with Johnson & Higgins, most recently as a Senior Vice President and Principal in their Global Captive Management Group. Before joining Johnson & Higgins in Bermuda, Mr. Gillett spent time as a broker for Leslie & Godwin in the UK and as an underwriter for the Royal Insurance Group.

Mr. Gillett is Chairman of the Bermuda Insurance Advisory Committee's marketing sub-committee, is a past president of the Bermuda Insurance Institute and past president of the Bermuda Insurance Managers Association.

Mr. Gillett is a Fellow of the Chartered Insurance Institute and in Associate in Risk Management.

Michael Hardy is the vice president of the Bermuda Insurance Management Association (BIMA) and a director of the Bermuda International Business Association (BIBA).

Expert advisors help ICAP A qualified Chartered Accountant by profession, Mr. Hardy has been offshore for 22 years of his career, with 18 of those in the Bermuda insurance market, and in particular managing captives.

He is currently the Senior Vice President of Liberty International Management (Bermuda) Ltd.

Tom Jones is a partner in the Chicago headquarters office of law firm McDermott, Will & Emery.

Mr. Jones regularly advises on formation and restructuring of trusts, risk retention and risk purchasing groups and offshore or onshore liability captives, fronted and unfronted. He has substantial experience in stock, mutual and reciprocal formats. In this context, he has worked with businesses and trade associations in a variety of industries. One of Mr. Jones's special interests is advising on formation of trusts and offshore and onshore liability captives for taxable and tax-exempt healthcare providers.

Tom Kendall is a senior vice president for J&H Marsh & McLennan, Inc., based in Charlotte.

After a five year period with Liberty Mutual as a personal lines sales representative, Mr. Kendall joined Johnson & Higgins in Detroit and began his career in the aviation and healthcare disciplines.

His latest use of captives to help clients has been in the use of captives for customer programs such as extended service plans, warranties, credit life and homeowners coverage or other revenue generation programs as well as protecting corporate earnings for companies. In total, Mr. Kendall has been involved in over 50 captives over the last 14 years. Judy Lindenmayer is a special Advisor to the Masters Summit Series. Ms Lindenmayer is Vice President of Insurance and Risk Management for Fidelity Investments in Boston, MA. Her 29 year career in risk management has included positions with Sealy, Inc., Zenith Radio Corp., Rollins Inc. and Data General.

An active member of the Risk and Insurance Management Society, Ms Lindenmayer has served in numerous Chicago Chapter as well as National positions. In 1997, she was chosen Risk Manager of the Year by Business Insurance magazine.

Aon's expert: Alan Cossar