Last week we talked about Joe Rego's climb up to the senior position of President of Insurance Broking for Aon Bermuda. This week we will look at how Joe and the industry have changed as a result of the terror attacks of September 11, 2001.

When asked about how 9-11 has affected the business his organisation handles, Joe became quiet and contemplative. He then said: "My perspective on life has definitely changed since September 11."

Joe, through the luck of the draw, was not in the World Trade Center. He, along with 40 other colleagues from around the world, were supposed to be in a meeting on the 105th floor of the World Trade Center but there was a scheduling mix-up, causing the meeting to be moved across the street to the Millenium Hotel.

Joe had been in the World Trade Center the day before. He had been in meetings and had attended a dinner with many of the people that were lost in the tragedy the very next day.

He can still vividly recall the people he had been with the day before and now they are gone. And the only reason why he is still here is because he was in the right place at the right time. Many of Joe's colleagues in New York are still really affected by the tragedy. Because he does not have to work in New York, he is able to block it out. It's only when people bring it up that he can see the whole tragedy unfold again before his eyes.

After the second plane hit the building, Joe and his colleagues began to see people jumping from the World Trade Center. In complete shock, all 40 of them picked up their belongings and started to run. No one spoke. They all just ran. No one needed to speak; the tragedy spoke for itself. They headed to the Waterfront and stayed there for a while. Then he and two colleagues started heading for Midtown. When they were about a mile and a half away, the first tower collapsed.

When the tower collapsed, Joe knew he was in a very serious situation. Once he reoriented himself and the weight of what had just occurred hit him, he instantly called Gail, his wife, on his cell phone to let her know he was all right. That was the last call he was to make for a while. Seconds after hanging up from Gail, the lines in the city went dead.

Joe was fortunate because he has a good friend that works in Midtown. He went to his friend's job but was not allowed in the building because there were bomb threats everywhere. People were screaming in the streets. He said it was utter chaos. So he waited downstairs for his friend.

When his friend came out, they began "the longest walk he has ever done in his life". He, his friends and thousands of others walked across the 59th street bridge into Queens. The atmosphere was chilling. No one spoke for a while until someone, trying to break the ice, said this would be the perfect spot for a terrorist attack with all of us walking across the bridge. He said he could feel his heart racing and could only assume everyone else's was too. He was never more pleased to get off that bridge and into the safety of his friend's home.

It took Joe several days to get back home because of the cancelled flights but he was with friends so it was not too bad. Even though he wanted to be with his family, he felt he was more fortunate than others who were still missing or who had nowhere to go. Joe lost his passport and clothing in the disaster because his room, overlooking the World Trade Center in the Millennium Hotel, was destroyed. He received special permission to travel without his passport. He was finally able to get home by getting a ride on XL's corporate jet.

Joe says his life will never be the same. Though he suppresses the events of September 11 whenever someone brings the topic up, it becomes clear in his mind. He thinks about all the colleagues he lost in the disaster and wonders what it is he has been spared to do. And the disaster hit close to home for him as well as one of his Aon Bermuda colleagues, Rhondelle Tankard, was lost in the World Trade Center.

He says he now looks for ways to get out of business travel. Whereas before September 11, 2001, he was always jet setting across the world, he does not feel the desire to be away from home as much. His daughters were very concerned about him travelling at first but he says children are so resilient and now they just accept that travelling is a part of his job.

From a professional perspective, the Bermuda market has gone back to the frenzied days of the 1980s. Joe says there has been a huge upsurge in business. He is back to dinners every night again. Trying to find staff when the resources are being stretched to the limits with all of the new companies coming to the Island is also another hurdle he is dealing with.

He says there are several differences between the current market and the 1980s because back then the business that was coming to the Island was monoline excess liability risks. Now business from all lines of business, all levels of attachment point as well as reinsurance is coming in.

September 11 has really changed the landscape of the Bermuda insurance market by bringing in new carriers who want to write all lines of business at all attachment points.

Next week we'll conclude Joe's story by looking at the changes he has seen in the Bermuda market since 1984 when he began his career in the industry. He'll also give some words of wisdom to people interested in making it into the industry.

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Cathy Duffy is a Chartered Property Casualty Underwriter (CPCU) and is now a freelance writer. She is a former executive of Zurich Global Energy and has 15 years experience in the insurance industry. She writes on insurance issues in the Royal Gazette every Monday. Feedback crduffycwbda.bm.