AS vice-president of operations at Centre Solutions (Bermuda) Ltd., it falls to Richard Winchell to manage the company's property, located on The Waterfront at Pitts Bay Road, and pretty much all that happens inside it.

His office looks out on Hamilton Harbour, aquatic-themed paintings hang from his walls - there's even a fish bowl in the corner - and it's easy to imagine him as curator of the Bermuda Aquarium, Museum & Zoo, a post he held for nearly 20 years.

"The most frequently asked question of me is, 'It must be really different now (my job at Centre Solutions) from what you did at the Aquarium'?" he said. "And certainly in lots of ways it is. But in the essence of the job, I was a manager at the Aquarium and I'm a manager here.

"It's indoors versus outdoors but there are plenty of similarities. Centre Solutions (Bermuda) offers a very flexible environment. It encourages its staff to be innovative and creative and folks are given lots of leeway in terms of delivering results.

"There's a lot of opportunity for self-management and there's also the fun that comes from developing something; coming up with ideas and moving them forward. So, from that perspective that's the same as the job I had at the Aquarium. There was a lot of flexibility there. Pretty much you were left alone to get on with what we had to do to fulfil our mission."

Mr. Winchell, a Bermudian, took over the post of curator in his mid-20s, shortly after completing a Master's degree in zoology.

"I did a biology degree, came back to Bermuda and taught secondary school for three years and then went back and did a Master's degree in zoology," he explained. "I then came back to Bermuda and at that time, the Aquarium job was available. "I had worked with the curator there then, David Lonsdale, on a course he and (former Government Conservation Officer) David Wingate had developed - the Audubon Natural History course at Nonsuch Island - and I'd been involved in the Audubon Society, so people knew about me a little bit.

"They suggested I apply for it and I did. The Aquarium's always had Bermudian curators; it was founded by a Bermudian, Louis Mowbray, followed by his son, Louis Mowbray. So I had that job at 25 or 26 and spent 19 years there. It was the best job in Bermuda. Bermuda's the best place in the world. It was great."

It was almost three years ago that Centre Solutions beckoned, said Mr. Winchell. As at the Aquarium, his daily duties run the gamut, covering everything from human resources management to overseeing the running of the company's health club.

"I'm responsible for operations here which involves the building and the tenants, the administrative sorts of services that we provide - the lunches, the travel, the mail, the health club - those sorts of things. Basically, whatever anyone else doesn't want to do," he laughed.

"Another of my duties is human resources, which is what it's all about in the end. That's (a company's) greatest asset. People want to be doing what they're best at. Job satsifaction comes from focusing, from channelling that, ensuring that folks feel comfortable with making decisions and moving things forward, but that they're also accountable.

"That's what it's about and I think that's something we developed at the Aquarium with the team there, and it's certainly something that's in place (at Centre Solutions). I think the Aquarium is very good at customer service and stands out in the Government in that regard and that's what it's about here too. Being excited about that service and proud of it."

At Centre Solutions, said Mr. Winchell, part of that dedication to customer service was evident in its commitment to the Bermuda community. The company prided itself on its charitable works and encouraged its staff to get involved also.

"One of my other responsibilities is community relationships, which includes charitable giving. We have a matching programme here with staff and we try to encourage participation in that. The message we try and get across is that people change the world. We've just got to set our goals, get the team together, and it can happen.

"We have lots of talented people in this organisation and we try and focus on how we can leverage that for the community. I can't argue with the fact that before there was international business, there were probably a lot of (charities) that got first pick but I think that people go where there's job satisfaction.

"You'll always have people that work at the Aquarium, you'll always have people that'll work at the National Trust and not-for-profits, but we look at it as another opportunity here. Why can't our people participate with those organisations in a charitable way?

"Our charitable committee last year thought that we should try to drive volunteerism in Bermuda. There's two components involved - money and time. And if you go back to the point I was making about people being able to change anything, it just made sense.

"So what we did, we worked with the Centre of Philanthropy, got a list of all the registered charities and sent a letter asking them to designate their star volunteer for the year. On the International Day of the Volunteer - last year was the International Year of the Volunteer - we had a reception here for 100 or 150 volunteers and their guests.

"We wanted to recognise them and thank them but also encourage volunteering and encourage others to be volunteers. To promote that, we had an article in The Royal Gazette so that everyone knew exactly how important we felt the contributions of volunteers were."

With all the good the company had done for Bermuda, discovering which charity had benefited most from its largesse was difficult, he added. However, a recent one that stood out was its sponsorship of Errol Williams' documentary of the 1959 theatre boycott, When Voices Rise, which premiered during this year's Bermuda International Film Festival (BIFF) "Centre's been involved in charities for a long time. One that we were involved in that I think was really cool and we found very satisfying and staff found very satisfying and it's not your classic charity, but it was the opening of When Voices Rise.

"To be able to help with that and to culminate with it being shown at BIFF and us being able to offer our staff tickets to see that and then being able to have the reception here afterwards - all that was just a nice package. It might not have helped to save a life, like a gift to the hospital or somewhere like that, but unless we know where we came from it's hard for us to figure out sometimes, where we're going or where we should be.

"We're certainly involved in all those charities that help humanity as well. And they're a priority but it's also nice to see something like this. One thing we really lack on the island is a sense of what our own culture is. I think things like (last year's exhibit in Washington, DC) the Smithsonian project and When Voices Rise are excellent in that regard.

"I've heard and I've probably said it myself, I'm not sure what our culture is. I think one thing that the Aquarium did extremely well was to participate with the Ministry of Education in developing a Bermuda Natural History curriculum in the schools.

"We have our environment and we have our culture, our history. This is our home. We need to know that stuff."