The long-awaited announcement on who would replace veteran Chubb CEO Dean O'Hare came this week with news that the post would go to financial services executive John Finnegan.

Mr. O'Hare, who was with Chubb for 39 years and spent the last 14 as CEO, had said in April that he would retire before the end of the year but until this week no replacement had been named.

Chubb, which was founded in the late 1800s, is a leading property and casualty insurers with a wholly-owned subsidiary in Bermuda - Chubb Atlantic Indemnity Ltd. (CAIL), and other Bermuda companies coming under CAIL. But despite Chubb's having a presence in Bermuda, its outgoing CEO Mr. O'Hare had been, in years past and by some quarters, seen as an enemy of the state with his active lobbying of the US Congress to close the so-called "Bermuda loophole".

In effect Mr. O'Hare sought legislation that would undermine what he claimed were unfair competitive advantages held by insurers that did business in the US but were domiciled offshore in low or no tax jurisdictions such as Bermuda.

The cries from Chubb and other American insurers prompted US House of Representatives Nancy Johnson and Richard Neal to introduce HR 1755 or the Reinsurance Tax Equity Act 2001.

And in a 2000 interview with The Royal Gazette Mr. O'Hare specifically named ACE and XL as being based in Bermuda to avoid paying taxes - allegations that both companies denied and Congressional records showed that XL had spent thousands of dollars lobbying on Capitol Hill against such measures.

But Mr. O'Hare appeared to have softened his stance somewhat after the September 11 terrorist attacks led the industry to see a void in capacity across lines and with it being nearly impossible to secure terrorism coverage.

Shortly after the attack Mr. O'Hare was one of a number of high-profile insurers that met with US President George Bush over the need for Government to enact legislation that would see it provide a "backstop" to the industry in the event of a future terrorist attack or become a terrorism insurer of last resort.

Notably both the heads of XL and ACE, Brian O'Hara and Brian Duperreault, were also in attendance for the White House discussion.

Chubb was also a significant investor in one of the Island's new reinsurance ventures after September 11 - Allied World Assurance Company (AWAC).

It is not known what views Mr. O'Hare's successor Mr. Finnegan holds in regards to insurers domiciled offshore.

Mr. Finnegan, who is currently president of General Motors and Chairman and President of General Motors Acceptance Corporation, will assume his new role at Chubb from December 1.

Mr. Finnegan, 53, has been with GMAC since 1976 with a Chubb press release reporting that he had held various treasury roles. In what may be a surprise to some, the new head of one of American's larger insurer companies has limited insurance experience. An analyst report from Morgan Stanley reported that "while GMAC has some minor insurance operations (extended warranty protection, dealer inventory insurance and personal automobile insurance) they are not at all analogous to Chubb's, and its auto business (Integon) is a formerly troubled company acquired in the late 1990s in an acquisition that is generally viewed as the valuation peak for nonstandard auto insurer acquisitions, just as that business eroded into unprofitability due to excess competition.

"As such, given the lack of analogies to Chubb in products, distribution and focus, it does not appear that direct relevant insurance experience are what Mr. Finnegan brings to Chubb."

But as a positive, Morgan Stanley said: "His credit expertise should be helpful considering Chubb's past forays into assuming credit risk (Enron and other energy surety, CDOs, etc) which have not created shareholder value, in our view."

Mr. Finnegan has a BA in political science, an MBA and a law degree. Mr. O'Hare officially steps down on November 30 after 39 years with Chubb - a company that was headed up by the Chubb family until 1970. On a world wide scale Chubb has 12,600 employees serving customers across the globe and with revenue last year of $7.8 billion.