ACE Limited executives yesterday said they were bound to running the company as efficiently as possible and that job cuts might at times be made. But the company stressed its significant growth over the years had seen it create many job opportunities.

The company employs some 7,500 staff around the world in the 50 countries it operates in. About 300 of those jobs are held in Bermuda.

Although the company reportedly made some redundancies in Bermuda positions earlier this year, a spokesperson said an exact number (estimates put the number as high as 20) could not be given as a number of the staff who had seen their jobs cut were being offered positions within other divisions of ACE.

The question of future redundancies at the company was put to ACE CEO Brian Duperreault and his successor Evan Greenberg, in an interview following the announcement of the senior executive shift yesterday.

Mr. Greenberg said: "We are a global company and we are charged with running the company in as efficient and effective manner as we can. And because we are global we have the flexibility and the options to perform global services from many parts of the globe and where it is most appropriate to do that, that is what we will do. A company is a living, breathing, amorphous thing and it is constantly evolving; you are constantly adding, constantly trimming, that is just the nature of a global business."

Mr. Duperreault added: "ACE has been a net job creator over the years; that is what Evan is pointing out. There are times when you are shifting jobs to other places because that is a better thing to do, but we have been a growth organisation and I do not think that is going to change over time."