You would be hard put to find someone from international business more involved in the Bermuda community than Joe Johnson.

While any number of Bermudians are known for their tireless commitment to making this Island a better place, Mr. Johnson has managed this at the same time as rising to the top of one of the Island?s insurance companies.

Mr. Johnson?s rise through the ranks at the Bermuda office of American International is in itself is an achievement worthy of praise but when you look at his wide involvement in the community, you wonder how he did it.

On Saturday night, Mr. Johnson?s achievements were recognised by the Bermuda Insurance Institute with its 2004 lifetime achievement award. He was praised by the BII for long being a ?model pillar of the American International Group and for Bermuda.

?Not one to seek the limelight, he has quietly, yet tirelessly, carved out a rarely paralleled half century of service to both his industry-leading employer and to the Bermudian community.?

Mr. Johnson, a Bermudian who joined AIG in 1954 at the age of 17, served as president and CEO of American International Company, Ltd. (AICo) for the last 26 years. Fifty years on, Mr. Johnson handed over the CEO reins while taking over the chairmanship of AIG?s Bermuda operations from the company?s venerable leader, Maurice (Hank) Greenberg.

?To tell you the truth, I still enjoy coming into work. I?m not telling you there aren?t days that you don?t have a knot in your stomach because there is a particular problem to deal with, but I can tell you too that the best way to get rid of that knot is to deal with the problem and move on,? Mr. Johnson said of his career.

?I?ve always found it exciting, sometimes frustrating but never boring. And the challenges have been there at the right time to move one on.?

He said he foresaw staying on as chairman of the AICo ?as long as I am able to achieve. As long as I am physically and mentally able, and I enjoy it?.

That could be a while, with Mr. Johnson doing everything to stay healthy including Pilates training twice a week as well as walking several days a week. He is also clearing his schedule as much as possible for rounds of golf.

A career with one of the Island?s early international business companies was something Mr. Johnson said he more or less fell into.

He said numbers and the written word had always come easily to him. Indeed, his academic abilities earned him a scholarship to Saltus Grammar School, where Mr. Johnson finished school at 15 still uncertain on career options.

For financial reasons, going abroad was ?not an option,? Mr. Johnson said. ?My basic upbringing was on the maternal side, with my grandparents. My grandfather was a farmer, and I lived on the family farm in Southampton.

?There are great life lessons to be learned if you live around a farm. You quickly learn responsibility. It doesn?t matter what the weather is like, you have to get out there, the animals have to be fed and the like.

?I?m an early riser. I?m in at six o?clock every morning. Not because somebody makes me, but I?m here.

?Until I was nine, my entire life was within a one-mile stretch. That is all I knew, but then I won a scholarship to Saltus. That was a new world opening up. Somewhere along the way I realised that farming was not for me. That truly was the reason I went and got a job, to get out of that. It wasn?t a life that I thought I could do. But even though I went and got this job, I still had to do chores. It was a good life lesson, that past responsibilities do exist and you have to fulfil them.?

Mr. Johnson?s first paying job was working at a grocery chain on Front Street called O.R. Loblein when he was around 11. Later he joined the Gibbons Company, working there on Saturdays and holidays. On leaving school, Mr. Johnson continued his part-time work while taking a bookkeeping course at the Bermuda Commercial School. He earned a General Accounting Certificate in 1954, and also learned to touch type, something the two women who ran BCS insisted all students learn.

?At the time I didn?t think it was very macho, but frankly later in life I?m very thankful. When computers became a part of everybody?s life I was not fearful of the keyboard. I?m not that fast but I can type without looking.?

Still looking for a proper job, Mr. Johnson searched the employment advertisements.

?I saw an ad in the paper for an accounting trainee at American International.?

He applied, got the job and there starts the 50-year history.

?I?d love to sit here and tell you there was some grand scheme about all of this but there really wasn?t. Everything followed somewhat of a pattern. Every stage prepared me for the next,? Mr. Johnson said. Although American International was a new company ? about six years old ? when Mr. Johnson joined, its numbers had already reached more than 350 people.

He said the large number stemmed from AIG having its life insurance business in Bermuda. In the early 1960s however a change in US law saw that business redomiciled back to Delaware. Mr. Johnson said: ?That meant we had an immediate downsizing in Bermuda. I wasn?t directly involved but we went down to somewhere around 220 people,? adding that some of those employees that left the Island with the life unit had included some Bermudians.

He said the numbers have been fairly consistent since. Along the way, emphasis has shifted from certain areas to others, based on the needs of the industry.

In 1969, Mr. Johnson saw the company go from a privately held firm to a public one, becoming known worldwide as AIG.

The next real growth for AIG?s Bermuda operations came in 1993 when the company formed excess companies, IPC Re (of which Mr. Johnson is board chairman) and Starr Excess. And then after a void in capacity following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, AIG formed Allied World Assurance Company (AWAC).

Pointing to a large construction area that AIG?s executive fifth floor offices have a birds? eye view of, Mr. Johnson said: ?That?s one of the reasons you see this big hole here. We are putting another building in to bring everybody back to this site. It will be a separate, free-standing building because right now we are spread out all over the place in Hamilton with five different locations.?

He said AWAC would be moving into the new building from its current Victoria Street address in the Bermuda Commercial Bank building.

?At seventeen years old, this was just a job to get a salary. I wasn?t really thinking about a career in insurance. If anyone had even suggested that I would have been here 50 years later ... at that time I thought 40 was old,? Mr. Johnson said.

Now 67, Mr. Johnson?s views on aging have changed: ?I?ll be very honest with you, I don?t know what old is. As long as you are physically able and mentally able to do things, one should continue.? Mr. Johnson could probably get away with staying home more but says he doesn?t. ?I?m in every day when I?m on the Island,? he said while conceding he is happy to have more time to spend with family. On February 10, Mr. Johnson and his wife Carroll celebrated 43 years of marriage.

Their daughter, Karen Elizabeth, lives in Maine with her husband and two young sons, Joey and Aidan. Mr. Johnson said: ?I am getting to see them more. The truth of the matter is, no matter what success one has in life there is sacrifice. There is no question that the people who sacrifice the most, in the early days, are your family.

?The wonderful thing about family is that they are the ones that bring you back to earth. If your ego gets a little out of control, they quickly bring you back to reality. It is important that we all have people like that to do that.?

While Mr. Johnson was lucky enough to ?fall into? a career in the Island?s growing insurance sector, his position also got him noticed in the local community.

?The evolution that I went through was I finished high school, started at AIG and in my early 20s was invited to join the Hamilton Lions Club. I had never had any exposure or experience in anything like that. It was a great experience as it gave me the opportunity to meet with people that I had never had any particular dealings with before. You also have to speak publicly to some degree. I had never had any exposure to that, but I eventually became president.?

Then in the early 1970s, Ernie Stempel ? who had been president and chairman of AIG?s operations in Bermuda ? decided to step down from the international division of the Chamber of Commerce.

?There are people who have assisted me all through my life. I don?t like to get to into names, but when I first started there was a man named Jack Warwick who really opened up a path for me. As far as management is concerned at AIG we have only had two heads of the company, C.V. Starr and Hank Greenberg.?

Mr. Johnson said his contact with Mr. Starr had been limited to the occasional handshake, while he has worked closely with Mr. Greenberg for many years.

?Ernie Stempel has also helped me through the years. At the age of 87, he is still a person I turn to for advice from time to time. It was from him that I took over the mantle of the company.?

Through Mr. Stempel?s retirement, Mr. Johnson was invited to join the board for the division which is now known as the Association of Bermuda International Companies (ABIC). He became chairman in 1978 for two years and also sat on the Bermuda Chamber of Commerce council. When his term as chairman finished he remained on the council, and was elected in 1984 as chairman of the entire Chamber.

?I?m the only person from the international sector that was ever president of the Bermuda Chamber of Commerce,? he said.

?As part of the public exposure I gained from those [Chamber positions, I was invited to do a couple of things,? including serving as a member of the Bermuda Insurance Advisory Committee (1980-2001), a member of Government?s Bermuda Insurance Advisory Committee (1980-2001), a director the Bermuda Telephone Co. (1983-1991), chairman of the Bermuda Insurance Admissions Committee (1983-1988), member of the Bermuda Immigration Board (1983-1988) and became a director of the Bank of Bermuda Limited in 1985. Mr. Johnson became the bank?s chairman in 2000. Although Mr. Johnson is stepping down from his post as chairman of the Bank of Bermuda in May after five years leading the board, he will remain chairman of the Bank of Bermuda Foundation.

In the mid-80s, Mr. Johnson was also architect of the US/Bermuda tax treaty as one of the members of the negotiating team and was also a member of the Bases Utilisation Committee. He also became a Justice of the Peace in 1987 and was named Honorary Fellow of the Bermuda College in 1996. Although Mr. Johnson said he had no political aspirations, an invitation from the then Governor saw him serve as an independent member of the Senate from 1988 to 1993.

?I was sitting at my desk one morning when Karen, my assistant, came in and said it is the Governor on the phone for you. I took the phone call and it was Viscount Dunrossil, asking me to come up for a drink at five o?clock. You know, this was not something that usually happened to me. I said I?d be there, but I have to be honest, I spent the rest of the day wondering what the devil I?d done wrong.?

It turns out Mr. Johnson had done enough right to get himself noticed.

?I had no idea but when I went up to see the Governor he invited me for a drink and asked me to consider going into the Senate as an independent. I am a little ashamed to say that when he asked me I had never even been in the Senate chambers.?

He said his long community involvement was always supported by his bosses at AIG.

?I have been very fortunate. AIG is the kind of company, from the time of C.V. Starr who founded it, that has had a belief that the people that work for them should be involved in the community. You have to be careful from a political standpoint that you don?t get heavily involved in politics, going into the senate as an Independent fit that mold very well,? he said.

During his time on the Senate, the Opposition Senators were current Premier Alex Scott, past Premier Jennifer Smith and the late Tourism Minister David Allen.

?I would suggest to you that when it comes to debaters, each of them was probably as good as it got. It was a good time, those years.?

Mr. Johnson only quit the Senate when he was asked to serve a second term on the Board of Immigration, from 1998 through 2003. ?I didn?t want to have conflicts of interest,? he said. Mr. Johnson was also a member of the Premier?s committee for the negotiation of the Bermuda Tax Treaty. ?That was clearly a very interesting time in our history. It gave me the opportunity to be exposed at levels that not many people get to be. I made quite a few trips to Washington, including for the final signing. That was clearly a high point. But no experience was more important than another. They were diverse and I enjoyed them all.

?It obviously took a bit of time management, which we all have, but it was interesting,? he said. Although he got to travel around the world through his career with American International, Mr. Johnson said he was glad he had lived out his time in Bermuda.

?I can?t imagine any other life. I?ve enjoyed my life here. It is no good wondering about the road not travelled, and I?m quite satisfied about the one I?ve taken.?

The one big change for business that Mr. Johnson has witnessed through the years is rapid technological advances.

?When I joined in 1954 you had to make a reservation to make a long-distance telephone call. We didn?t have direct dial,? he said, but fast forward to today and Mr. Johnson says of the Blackberry at his belt: ?This probably has more computing power than the whole of American International had when I joined it. It is quite phenomenal.

?A lot of people look as today?s technology as an imposition, I personally think it has freed me up from the office in many ways. I can go places but still be in contact.?

As for what advice he would give to the next generation looking at a career in international business, Mr. Johnson said: ?The award we are talking about has been given to me by the BII and it would be amiss if I did not mention them. Really their principle function has been education, and they have never wavered from that. They are very much for promoting the industry from an employment standpoint. They have helped literally hundreds of Bermudians further their career in this industry.

?This has been done with very few permanent staff, and many volunteers from the industry.?