The new head of Bermuda International Business Association has said she will try to speak to disenfranchised Bermudians who see nothing in international business for them.

Deborah Middleton, who started her job on Monday as the chief executive officer of BIBA, said she wanted to inform the public of the large role international business played on the Island - and let them know that they could also be involved in this corporate world.

"Locally there is a cross-section of Bermudians who feel disenfranchised by international business because they don't feel they have a role to play in it," she said. "It was easier to find a role to play in a Bermuda that was tourism based."

She said BIBA was running an add campaign at the moment to highlight some of the opportunities there are for Bermudians who aren't directly involved in international business.

"There are opportunities out there," she said, adding that BIBA's International Business Week campaign was coming up with a series of events aimed at young people as well as adults to "help broaden people's understanding of the benefits of international business".

When asked why she thought that sectors of the community felt alienated from international business, Ms Middleton said: "I use the analogy of repositioning a company.

"Bermuda has in fact undergone a repositioning from tourism to international business, and if that had been a company, the management would have managed that change and people would have gone into other careers, retrained or could leave. But that is not possible with a country.

"People feel they have missed the boat, that they don't have the qualifications needed to be underwriters, or have the insurance qualifications and it is our job to show that there are so many other occupations that serve international business that don't require necessarily a university degree."

When asked if there was really work for blue collar workers in international business, Ms Middleton said that there was plenty of work for all kinds of people generated by the booming sector.

She said: "When you think about it, it has a knock on effect. You have all the construction, all the landscaping, all the interior design that is involved, you have people putting up all the office equipment and furniture, the sign making, driving, catering... there is a knock-on effect that we don't always think about."

She went on to say that it even impacted restaurants and hotels that were packed now with business travellers.

"I think we sometimes we forget what it does," she said. "And think we that if we haven't got these heady qualifications we think that we can't be a part of it."

But she believes that the perception of international business by much of the community can be changed.

"It is my desire to change that (perception)," she said. "It is a healing process really, and I think it is a lack of understanding." And it is this lack of understanding that BIBA says it is going to tackle under her leadership.

Ms Middleton comes from a background is in professional services and marketing. She started her career in London working for a law firm with 50 partners.

"That stood me in good stead for this job because there are a lot of different people you have to work with, as far as your committee, government and your staff,' she said.

Ms Middleton then moved into reinsurance and was vice president of corporate communications at Overseas Partners Ltd, and then opened her own marketing business, Torrance Middleton Marketing, which she says she has now put on hold as she now has her dream job.

"I was lucky to be able to amplify my job in international business and that again prepared me for this job in many ways," adding that she counted among her clients software companies, accounting firms, reinsurance and the hospitality industry.

Ms Middleton has also served on the BIBA international marketing committee, which allowed her an insight into the workings of BIBA.

"In that time of course we had all the OECD issues, the Patriot Bill and all sorts of challenges that we faced and it has kept my feet wet as far as marketing Bermuda as a jurisdiction."

She said that while in charge of BIBA she was going to build on what was already here - the platform that her predecessor Richard Calderon and his team put into place.

"One of the issues I feel passionate about is promoting a better understanding of international business both in the community and abroad.

"And I am hoping that with my marketing and public relations background we can really educate the foreign press as to how Bermuda operates, why it is such an outstanding place... because many journalists don't understand that we are not a tax haven, that we are highly regarded, we are well regulated.

"It is not so much the trade journalists that cover reinsurance, but more the reporters who are reporting ad-hock who don't understand that we are not part of the Caribbean."

She said BIBA has held numerous press briefings, with the last one was set up in New York and she said BIBA plans to have its next meet the press at the MAR Hedge Fund Conference in Bermuda in September and plan one for London later in the year.

"These are initiatives we have had in the past and they have worked very well," she said. "It is just that we have to keep at it."

She added: "For me this is a really great opportunity, because you are actually marketing your country, and I don't think it gets any better than that."