He won't turn 65 until Sunday but ACE vice-chairman Don Kramer got to ring in this landmark birthday a few days early when a surprise birthday bash was staged at the City Hall Theatre yesterday.

Mr. Kramer must have got quite a shock after being led out on stage blind-folded, and then to be faced by several hundred well-wishing colleagues and members of the community.

If that wasn't a surprise, a video honouring Mr. Kramer - and ten months in the making - must have caught him off guard. Family - including his sister, daughters and wife - old childhood friends and colleagues remembered moments that they had shared with Mr. Kramer, from his childhood days playing ball in the alley next to his Brooklyn home, the death of his father at age nine, working long hours as a waiter and bus boy at a Catskill resort, up to his graduation from Brooklyn College and an MBA from New York University. But the Bermuda insurance giant said the occasion was meant to not only mark Mr. Kramer's birthday but the achievements he had made to the company - and it was strictly a celebration, not a retirement party.

ACE CEO Brian Duperreault paid tribute to Mr. Kramer, who has been with the company since its acquisition of Bermuda catastrophe reinsurer Tempest Re in 1996, but only after a good laugh reading a list of things that Mr. Kramer was older than including pantyhose, Scrabble, the United Nations and the right of women to vote in Bermuda.

Mr. Duperreault said in his tribute: “As a company we have a number of attributes. We are strong, agile, intelligent, ethical and we are creative...and all of those attributes also describe you, Don - but none more than creativity.

He added that Mr. Kramer was in charge of “dreaming” and that his “unconventional thoughts force you to see the world...He has the ideas and he is a communicator - not only can he see it, he can explain it.”

Mr. Kramer was president and chief executive officer of Tempest, one of a number of insurance companies to set up on the Island in 1993 on the heels of the devastating Hurricane Andrew the previous year.

As a further tribute ACE created the “Don Kramer Award for Creativity” which was handed out first to its namesake, but also awarded yesterday to one of ACE's global staff.

Paulo Pereira, of ACE Latin America, was chosen over 12 other nominees from ACE's business units across the globe. Mr. Pereira flew in to the Island, from Sao Paulo, Brazil for a two-day stint and to receive the award.

This award, which is to be presented annually, was reportedly established to recognise employees world-wide for their “originality and creativity in implementing solutions that lead to significant contributions toward the achievement of ACE's business objectives (and should) be measurably cost effective, measurably improve company earnings and enhance ACE's reputation within the community”. Nominations for the awards came from the CEOs of the ACE Group.

Mr. Pereira was nominated by Ed Clancy for having attracted almost seven million names in new sponsor data bases. This was reportedly done by a direct marketing strategy to market Accident and Health (A&H) and small personal lines insurance coverage. The end result was annual premium of $6.7 million.