THE Board of Trustees of the Bermuda Foundation for Insurance Studies (BFIS) have appointed long-serving member, Paul Simons, as President and Chairman of the Board. The appointment was announced at BFIS Annual General Meeting on December 14.

A Howard University graduate, Mr. Simons holds a BBA in management and is a vice president, underwriter at XL Capital Ltd's reinsurance operations in Bermuda.

He is also a member of the XL Insurance Scholarship Committee.

Chairman of BFIS, Brian Hall congratulated Mr. Simons on his appointment and said: "Paul has represented XL and XL Re on a number of BFIS Committees since 1998 and is chairman of our Scholarship Committee and therefore has an in-depth understanding of BFIS. I am delighted that he has agreed to take on this role."

Mr. Simons said he was looking forward to working with the Board to further the goals of BFIS in preparing Bermudians to enter the insurance industry through scholarship, intern, mentoring, career advice and school career presentation programmes.

Since its inception in 1996, BFIS's aim has been to ensure that Bermuda's insurance companies have access to a wide pool of well-educated and prepared Bermudians and so far 46 BFIS scholarship recipients have graduated from college and are working in the insurance sector.

A further 18 BFIS scholarship students are currently pursuing further education.

Past-president Chris Sposato will continue to serve as fundraising chairman, Mike Fisher continues as careers committee chairman, and Tracy Keill as treasurer and finance committee chairman.