Allied World Assurance Company Ltd. continues to build its management team with the appointment of Cotina D. Forth-Albuoy to the position of assistant vice president, General Casualty.

Cotina has 12 years' experience in the commercial insurance industry and started her career with Heddington Insurance Company Ltd., Texaco's former Captive Insurer. Prior to joining AWAC, she spent the last eight years with XL Insurance (Bermuda) Ltd, a subsidiary of XL Capital Ltd.

At XL, as assistant vice president and senior underwriter, she held underwriting authority for their maximum Casualty unit and executed all aspects of the Commercial General Liability underwriting function for various Fortune 500 industry classes.

Her responsibilities at AWAC include all facets of the underwriting process: managing loss analysis, exposure quantification, rating and negotiating policy terms and conditions for a number of different risk class industries.

In light of the insurance industry's recent history, Cotina points out that strict adherence to meaningful underwriting guidelines is paramount. Her past experience in handling "tough" industries has enabled Cotina to make a relatively seamless transition to her new responsibilities at AWAC.

Cotina is a Bermuda Government Scholar and an Economics graduate of The University of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Of the 30 Bermudians on staff at AWAC, she is the seventh Bermudian to be hired as a senior manager. She says she feels this simple statistic speaks for itself AWAC is committed to Bermuda and Bermudians at all levels of the organisation. Excited to be a part of the seasoned and dynamic management team in this new venture, her philosophy is, "Respice Finem: Keep the end in view".

Air Care has appointed Philip Somner as a residential installation supervisor.Mr. Somner's new responsibilities include planning, supervising, and inspecting the installation operation; trouble shooting; repair and maintenance of a wide variety of air conditioning systems. Additionally, Mr. Somner will provide technical and diagnostic guidance to a work team in an effort to resolve problems concerning the project maintenance repair and installations of air conditioning units. Mr. Somner, having worked and trained in Bermuda, is a one time owner of an industry related enterprise and brings with him over 18 years of experience in the air conditioning installation trade.

KPMG has announced that Nataya DeSilva has achieved her Certified Public Account (CPA) qualification.

A Berkeley Institute graduate, Ms. DeSilva is currently with the firm's Accounting Services Practice.

Ms.Desilva graduated Magna Cum laude from Drexel university in Philadelphia with a BSE, majoring in Accounting and joined the firm's student intern programme in 2000.