Former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani drew hundreds yesterday when he delivered the keynote lunchtime address at the World Insurance Forum.

In a ballroom packed with up to 500 guests, Mr. Giuliani was ushered in by bodyguards that remained on watch through the lunch.

During the meal, Mr. Giuliani was joined by fellow New Yorker and ACE Limited president and CEO Evan Greenberg. Also on the head table were John Coomber, CEO of Swiss Re (on his first visit to the Island), next to him Governor Sir John Vereker, Finance Minister Paula Cox, AXIS chairman Michael Butt, Bank of Bermuda?s Henry Smith, World Insurance Forum operating Committee Chairman Rob in Spencer-Arscott, XL president and CEO Brian O?Hara, PricewaterhouseCoopers partner James Scanlan, AON president and COO Michael O?Halleran who also introduced Mr. Giuliani.

Mr. O?Halleran said ?It may be a clich? to say that someone needs no introduction but the name of Giuliani is one synonymous with character, and unfailing strength in the face of adversity,? in praise of the man who saw New York through its dark days following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

As the consummate politician he is, Mr. Giuliani was at times serious but also knew how to draw in his audience with a few well-timed but lighthearted remarks.

He was introduced by Michael O?Halleran with any number of titles, depending on who was addressing him, and one being ?Sir Rudolph? after being knighted by the Queen.

But Mr. Giuliani laughed that aside, saying: ?I am really not a Sir, it is only honourary. The reason I say that is I have not told the people in Brooklyn. It really is a very nice place but I would never get a vote if I was knighted, so in case I have a political future??

As another aside, Mr. Giuliani said that he had been calling New York the ?Capital of the World? in speech during his early days as mayor but found himself being challenged by other mayors on his authority to do that.

But he said he was able to rest his case when Pope John Paul came to New York and said mass in Central Park, and said New York was the ?Capital of the World?.

Thereafter he said he told anyone who challenged him to take it up with the Pope, but at the risk of losing the Catholic vote.

And when asked by one cheeky member of the audience how he thought things would go with the (rival Boston baseball team) Red Sox in September, Mr. Giuliani said: ?We often have trouble with them in September but it always works out the same way. I am a traditonalist; they will be around for September but not for all of October.?

Mr. Giuliani, 60, a born and bred New Yorker, grew up in a working class family in Brooklyn.

He was educated at Manhattan College in the Bronx and the New York University Law School in Manhattan, graduating magna cum laude in 1968.

He dedicated the majority of the first twenty-five years of a public service career in New York and Washington D.C.

In 1993, he was elected the 107th mayor of the city of New York and in 1997, was re-elected by a wide majority.Mr. Giuliani may be remembered for his active involvement in the hours and weeks after the September 11 attacks ? an attack that killed and wounded thousands ? but is also credited for the downturn in crime in New York during his tenure as mayor.

Crime statistics show that under his watch, overall crime in New York City ? once known as a crime capital ? fell 65 percent, murder rates declined 70 percent and New York even earned the recognition of the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) for being the ?safest large city in the United States?.

For his efforts after September 11, Mr. Giuliani was named ?Person of the Year? by Time Magazine, knighted by Queen Elizabeth (although as an American he would not be called Sir Rudolph) and awarded the Ronald Reagan Presidential Freedom Award.

At the beginning of 2002, Mr. Giuliani stepped down as mayor ? with his being limited by law to two terms ? and found Giuliani Partners as a professional services firm consulting on a number of areas including emergency preparedness, public safety, crisis leadership and financial management.