Insurance industry legend Robert Clements will step down as chairman of Bermuda-based Arch Capital on April 1, but will stay on as a consultant for the company he founded.

Taking up the chairmanship is Paul Ingrey, who has served as a director since 2001.

Mr. Ingrey joined Arch in 2001 - after five years in retirement - as chairman and chief executive of reinsurance operations, roles he relinquished last year when he was named vice chairman in April with responsibility for underwriting oversight.

The changing of the guard was said to be in line with the company's succession plan, according to a company issued Press release.

Mr. Clements leaves Arch after not only making a firm mark on that company but on the Bermuda market as a whole, having been a founding father of figurehead companies ACE Limited and XL Capital.

He stepped down as a director of XL in 2002, having served on that board since the company's 1986 formation. Mr. Clements was also formerly a director of ACE, Annuity and Life Re (Holdings), Ltd. and Stockton Reinsurance Limited. He is chairman emeritus of the board of overseers of the School of Risk Management, Insurance and Actuarial Science of St. John's University and a member of Rand Corp. President's Council.

From March 1996 to February 2001, Mr. Clements was an advisor to MMC Capital, where he also served as chairman and CEO from January 1994 to March 1996.

From 1992 to 1994, he served as president of Marsh & McLennan Companies, Inc., and served as vice-chairman during 1991. He was chairman of J&H Marsh & McLennan, Incorporated (formerly Marsh & McLennan, Incorporated), a subsidiary of Marsh & McLennan Companies, Inc., from 1988 until March 1992.

He joined Marsh & McLennan, Ltd., a Canadian subsidiary of Marsh & McLennan Companies, Inc., in 1959.

Mr. Ingrey was the founder of F&G Re Inc., a reinsurance subsidiary of USF&G Corporation, and served as its chairman and chief executive officer from 1983 to 1996.

Prior to that he was senior vice president of Prudential Reinsurance, an underwriter of property and casualty reinsurance.

He has also served as a director of USF&G Corporation (until its sale to The St. Paul Companies, Inc. in 1998) and E.W. Blanch Holdings, Inc., the holding company for E.W. Blanch Co., which provides risk management and distribution services through several subsidiaries (until its sale to Benfield Greig, the London-based international reinsurance broker, in April 2001) and he was formerly a director of Fairfax Financial Holdings Limited, an insurance and reinsurance company with a focus on property and casualty insurance until September 2002.