Staff at ACE were left scratching their heads about what number to give their first policy in 1985. They did not want to start at 001, so boss John Cox came up with the bright idea to give it the number of the Hamilton Princess hotel room he started the business in -- 348.

*** The company was so small when it started that everyone's birthday was celebrated with cakes and coffee, and if anyone got a new car, the whole office would pour out to look and marvel. That would be a little disruptive today since the company has grown from a staff of six to nearly 8,000 worldwide.

*** In the beginning the operation was so small that John Cox would post Post-it notes in the office window to let brokers know what kind of risk he was buying that day. So if a sticker went up with `high' on it, then he was after high risk. Medium and low were the other two options.

*** Christopher Marshall was employee number 1. But he fears he might not have got the job if he hadn't been a bit cheeky as he left room 348 of the Hamilton Princess where he was interviewed and turned and wanted to know if he got the job. John Cox then asked him what salary he wanted, and he gave a figure, to which Cox replied: "I would have given you $20,000 more''. Marshall got the job on the salary he suggested, but after six months got a $20,000 pay rise.

*** Brian Duperreault was employee number 57. Brought in to globalise the company, he started in 1994 with grand ambitions for the company. In fact way back when he approached CIGNA for a buy out, but they told him to get lost -- ACE was too small fry for them. Five years later he acquired CIGNA -- one of the newest insurance companies in the world had bought up one of the oldest.

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