The head of accounting firm KPMG, Greg Haycock, has been appointed head of the Bermuda International Business Association.

The announcement was made yesterday at a lunch following the BIBA annual general meeting, when Mr. Haycock was introduced as the new head of the organisation.

Mr. Haycock, the senior partner of KPMG in Bermuda and international contact partner, will have a tenure of two years, and will be assisted by the immediate past chairman, Jeffery Conyers of First Bermuda Securities.

Mr. Conyers, in his chairman's report for the year, said that 2003 will go down in the history books for the challenges facing Bermuda as a jurisdiction and BIBA as an organisation ? as well as the damage caused by Hurricane Fabian.

"The first quarter of the year found us busy deflecting negative press as a by-product of the corporate inversions debate in the US and crafting responses to influence opinion and mitigate any potential damage to our reputation overseas," said Mr. Conyers, who has been at the helm of BIBA now for two years.

"The remainder of the year allowed us to become more pro-active with a series of events designed to raise Bermuda's profile on the international stage."

Mr. Conyers, who runs First Bermuda Securities, stressed that Bermuda continued to work in a "fiercely" competitive landscape overseas, facing mounting pressure form competitor jurisdictions.

"Whilst at home we are actively engaged in addressing legislative and social issues potentially impacting on international business and its success going forward," said Mr. Conyers.

He also pointed to various committees that during the year had worked with Government to advise on new laws expected to be put in place, including those for collective investment schemes, trusts and the investment business act.

Mr. Conyers said: "With the help of our committees, BIBA was actively involved in providing input on legislation of direct impact on international business and developing strategies and initiatives to enhance the image of Bermuda's international business sector both at home and abroad."

And he said that difficulties caused by Hurricane Fabian, which had threatened to disrupt the International Business Week, had forced the event to be held over a five week period.

But he said that this new extended timetable had worked very well and may even "be considered the way forward in the future".

He said that this year there was a shift to include mature students in career planning workshops with a special motivational conference "designed to help them jumpstart their careers or re-train".

"The one-day conference and workshops taught by industry professionals were well attended, evidencing a need for events for this audience," said Mr. Conyers. "And more will be included as part of next year's conference.

"During the five week period, BIBA reached out to the public via TV talk shows, interviews, video clips and radio quizzes on international business topics as well as through a special newspaper supplement... all in all the local awareness committee succeeded in building on previous years' platforms and taking its programme to a new level."

BIBA also attended the Global Asset Securitisation conference held in Barcelona, Spain, the Global Alternative Investment Management conference in Geneva and RIMS in Chicago.