Montpelier Re Holdings Ltd., a Bermuda reinsurer, on Friday said three directors involved with companies that were founding investors, are to step down.

John Gillespie, chairman of Montpelier's Finance Committee, and Kamile Salame and William Speigel, who both sit on the reinsurer's audit committee, each said their resignation would take effect at the company's annual general meeting, scheduled for May 23.

Montpelier said Morgan W. Davis, Clement S. Dwyer, Jr. and Candace L. Straight were elected to succeed the three departing directors. It didn't say if the appointments will also fill the sub-committee vacancies.

"The movement in directors is a natural cycle after four years of operations," said chief executive Tony Taylor, in an e-mail.

Mr. Spiegel and Mr. Salame represented some of the original private equity which invested in Montpelier when it was formed in 2001, said Mr. Taylor. The companies they represent have over the years sold their investments, he added.

Mr. Spiegel is president of Cypress Group LLC, a New York-based private equity firm that recently invested in a new Bermuda reinsurer, Lancashire Holdings Ltd. Mr. Spiegel sits on Lancashire's board. Mr. Salame is a director of Credit Suisse Holdings.

Mr. Gillespie, who was a senior executive of White Mountains Group, is now setting up a new investor services company. White Mountains, a Bermuda-based insurance group, was the lead investor in Montpelier and continues to hold a sizeable stake in the company.

On February 2, White Mountains said its 2005 net income of $68 million included a $52 million decrease, after dividends, in its investment in Montpelier, which sustained 2005 catastrophe losses in excess of $1 billion.

In recent weeks, G. Thompson Hutton, who had been chairman of Montpelier's audit committee resigned in connection with his being appointed chief executive of the reinsurance operations for White Mountains, a founding investor of Montpelier.