After seven years with Bermuda-based insurance giant ACE Limited, Wendy Davis Johnson is calling it a day.

But it is not a case of the proverbial seven-year itch. Nor is it retirement. Mrs. Davis Johnson simply wants to spend more time with her family and to have time to pursue ?other passions? including writing and greater involvement in the community.

Mrs. Davis Johnson joined ACE Limited in 1997. Hired as director communications, she effectively established the communications function for the company. She was promoted to the position of director global communications in July, 2001.

As director global communications, Mrs. Davis Johnson has had a full plate with responsibility for internal and external communications at ACE Limited, the Bermuda-based holding company of the ACE Group of Companies. In that role she has had oversight for the management of the ACE brand, the development and placement of corporate advertising and the development and management of the company?s website and the global employee communications programme.

?I made this decision after really having done everything I set out to do at ACE. Now is the time to experience other things,? she told The Royal Gazette.

Stepping down from ACE was not something Mrs. Davis Johnson had planned to do at this time but a protracted recovery period after surgery last year made her rethink her future with the company.

?I was on medical leave in the fall; it was not life threatening but it was serious enough that I was off for six weeks.?

During her time off she saw how much she was missing, including being there when her husband Gordon Johnson, executive officer for the United Bermuda Party, got home from work and the daily routine of their daughter, Molly, as well as more time with her eldest daughter, Katie Davis, 25, a Harvard graduate who was last year hired as a teacher at Saltus Grammar School.

She also wants to have the time to do more with her mother, Molly Critchley, and to visit her sister, Beth Charlton, in Nova Scotia, and brother, Spencer Critchley in California. A second brother, Owen Critchley, lives with his family on the Island.

?It hit me between the eyes what I was missing with Molly, doing her homework with her, eating dinner with her. I have not been able to do these things since she was born. I went back to work when she was two months old, and I have been working long hours since; pretty much 24/7? Mrs. Davis Johnson said.

Although saying she loved every minute of her time at ACE, Mrs. Davis Johnson said her priorities were now different: ?I do not want to get into the position of resenting what I am doing, which would not be fair to the company or my colleagues. You have to want to give all, and now I yearn to spend more time with my family. I want to be there when Molly comes home from school, I want to help her with her homework and be there 100 percent when we are on a family holiday,? she said.

Mrs. Davis Johnson said age has given her a different perspective: ?I turned 50 almost two years ago, and I had it in my mind to work until I was 55. This July I am going to be 52, and when I think back over the last two years, the predominant leitmotif is intense work. Obviously I spent time with my family, but being at home for six weeks made me realise that I could not remember the last time that I was not working. This was really the first time since Katie was born.?

Even with the birth of her second daughter eight years ago, Mrs. Davis Johnson said she was doing work while on maternity leave.

Those who know Mrs. Davis Johnson might well describe her as driven, energetic and in her own words, one that ?gives 1,000 percent?.

That is not likely to change, with her leaving ACE. ?I?ll be busier than ever,? she laughs, but with a difference.

?I have given all that I want to give to the corporate world. I want to explore areas that I am passionate about,? she said.

?There will be lots of things I will do but they will be things that I pick and choose. If I was ten years younger it would be a different situation, but I am not. I am going to be 52. I have a different perspective now. I see that moments with my family are precious, and can be so fleeting,? she said.

One thing she plans to do after leaving ACE is step up her involvement with Bermuda?s National Dance Foundation, after joining the board of the organisation last year.

That appointment will see her continue to work, albeit in a different vein, with the man she reports to at ACE Limited, vice-chairman Donald Kramer who was appointed as chairman of the foundation last September. At that time, Mr. Kramer revealed an extensive revamp of the foundation, including a $1.2 million fundraising campaign and the establishment of a world-class international summer dance institute.

Working with the foundation is a perfect fit for Mrs. Davis Johnson, who expressed a life-long passion for dance. She studied dance from the age of five at a variety of dance institutions, including the Royal Winnipeg Ballet, Toronto Dance Theatre and the Martha Graham School of Contemporary Dance. She was also a founding member of the Bermuda National Dance Theatre, the precursor to the National Dance Theatre of Bermuda.

Being able to continue to work with Mr. Kramer is something Mrs. Davis Johnson is only too pleased about, saying that she felt honoured to have worked with and learned from Mr. Kramer as well as ACE chairman and CEO Brian Duperreault, during her years at ACE.

?It has been an honour to work with Brian and Don. I do not know if I will ever meet their like again.?

She said working with Mr. Kramer had been ?inspirational? and described Mr. Duperreault as ?the most decent, humane individual, coupled with an astute business acumen?.

She will not leave ACE for good until some time in the summer, saying that in the interest of continuity she will stay put until a new global head of communications is appointed.

Looking back at the last seven years, Mrs. Davis Johnson said she had loved seeing, and being a part of, the company?s significant growth.

ACE was established on the Island in 1985, and has grown through the years, largely through strategic acquisitions during the 1990s, culminating in its 1999 acquisition of Cigna?s property and casualty business. Today it is a global corporation with operations in 50 countries around the world and a total workforce of some 7,500.

?I loved every minute of it at ACE and I have been proud of the work I and my team have produced. I would not have missed a second of it. Look at what I have been privileged to support; the 1997 acquisition of US-based Westchester Fire Insurance Co., then Tarquin (a Lloyd?s of London company), Cap Re and Cigna P&C.?

Mrs. Davis Johnson called the $3.45 billion Cigna acquisition ?the most challenging and satisfying?.

?From from the time we announced our intent (to buy) to the close of the sale (January to July, 1999) was six months of intense focus. Because of anti-trust laws we could not amalgamate which meant I was working side by side with Cigna?s corporate communications on working out how to manage communications internally and externally to employees, brokers, risk managers and journalists.?

She said: ?It was thrilling to have been transformed from a small, local company to a global corporation. I consider myself so lucky to have been with ACE during this period.?

Although well known in her role at ACE, Mrs. Davis Johnson built up a strong reputation in the communications field in the years prior through her work at the Bermuda International Business Association and with the Bermuda Department of Tourism.

She joined BIBA in 1993 as marketing manager and was named executive director in 1997. While at BIBA, she established the international marketing programme which promotes Bermuda as a premier international business jurisdiction as well as an on-island programme to raise awareness of the importance of international business to the local community.

From 1987 to 1997, she was manager, communications for the Bermuda Department of Tourism. Before that, Mrs. Davis Johnson worked, from 1983, as broadcast journalist with the Bermuda Broadcasting Company.

She is a graduate of Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia and the University of Toronto.

Although she has had the full support of family in forging ahead with her career, she said she now sees how much her charting a new course means to them. Her family is thrilled that she will be home more ? although she said she did not realise how much this would mean to them until after she had made the decision. ?I do not remember disengaging from work in the last 20 years. I have loved my work and the field I am in, and I have given 1,000 percent. I thought I had figured out how to juggle all; being an outstanding mother, wife and in my career. But with time off I realised what may have been in the back of my mind. Something had changed. I realised what matters most and that is being in control of my family life.

?In order to do this sort of job, you have to give up a certain amount of control. I was virtually on call all of the time; you have to be on top of what you are responsible for. You have to want to give this job your all. Now I have the yearning to spend more time with my family.

?If I was ten years younger, it would be a different situation. But I am not, and I have a different perspective now. I do not want to miss any family moments, and I want to do this while I am young, fit and healthy enough to give a lot,? she said, of her desire to become more involved in the community, including becoming more involved at Molly?s school, the Bermuda High School, whether as part of the Parent Teacher Association or as a class mother.

Mrs. Davis Johnson also wants to don her dance shoes once more.

?One of the things I want is to take dance classes again. I am not kidding myself that I will perform again, but I want to take advantage of classes again. There is nothing like dance to maintain body and spirit, she said.

She will also have time to make sure her daughter Katie?s October wedding goes off without a hitch, saying she wanted to give her the best wedding possible.

?My family are all thrilled. I did not realise how much they resented the intrusiveness of my job. They have all been so supportive. Gordon was always behind my career. He said ?I will take care of everything?; they never let me know they wanted me to be at home more. But my daughter, Molly, did get to the point that when my cell phone rang, she would say ?don?t answer it.?

In addition to time with her family, and work with the National Dance Foundation, Mrs. Davis Johnson also wants to turn her hand to freelance writing, and may even have a book or two up her sleeve.

She already has at least one possible subject in mind, with a wish to ?in some way? honour her late father, David Critchley, who was Permanent Secretary of Health and Social Services.

?I want to do something in his memory ? maybe write about him or find some other way to honour his memory and what he contributed to Bermuda,? she said.