Last week we looked at the services the BII provides to the community.

This week in my final review of the BII, we will explore how the BII has evolved into not just a community centre for insurance learning but an international centre with the introduction of the Awards Ceremony, the introduction of their website and the success of the number of students it is preparing for the insurance industry.

In 1998, the BII decided to add another dimension to its role as the educational resource to the Bermuda Insurance Industry by introducing the Annual Awards Ceremony.

At this ceremony, two key professionals in the insurance industry are awarded for their contributions to the insurance industry.

One award is given to the Market Leader of the Year and the other is given to a person selected for the Lifetime Achievement Award. The Market Leader of the Year Award is given to executives who distinguish themselves during the course of the year. The Lifetime Achievement Award is given to individuals from the insurance industry who have distinguished themselves during their career.

Pete Doyles, Director of Education & Training at the Bermuda Insurance Institute (BII), emphasises that the people who win the awards are selected by their peers in the industry while the BII acts as the facilitator.

Candidates are selected by the Selection Committee, which consists of a cross section of senior insurance executives and ancillary service providers to the industry as well as members from the media.

Each person on the committee is given the charge of going back to his or her organisation to come up with three nominees for both the Market Leader and the Lifetime Achievement Award.

Once they have selected their candidates, they meet to discuss which one of their candidates should receive the award.

They then conference call with overseas members of the committee to make their final selection.

Within a relatively short period of time, the committee chooses the two recipients of the awards.

Over the years the award recipients have been Year 1 Market Leader - Brian Duperreault, Lifetime Achievement Award - Fred Reiss; Year 2 - Market Leader - Brian O'Hara, Lifetime Achievement Award - Ernie Stempel; Year 3 - Market Leader - James Stanard, Lifetime Achievement - Brian Hall; Year 4 - Market Leader - Michael Butt, Lifetime Achievement - Robert Clements; and this year's awardees are Market Leader - Jim Bryce and Lifetime Achievement - Robert Newhouse.

Pete says since the introduction of the Awards Ceremony, the BII Annual Dinner/Dance has once again regained its status in the industry because it attracts several of the senior members of the industry to come out and acknowledge the achievements of their peers.

The Awards Dinner also attracts international attention from insurance periodicals around the world because of the people being recognised for their contributions to the insurance industry.

In addition, every September, the BII hosts the Education Awards Luncheon to recognise all the students who obtained professional designations during the course of the year.

Last year, there were a record number of students who obtained professional designations.

The BII is also using technology to keep students and those interested in pursuing careers in insurance abreast of what it has on offer with the introduction of its website HYPERLINK "http://www.bii.bm"www.bii.bm. The website contains historical information about the BII as well as courses offered and should be used by anyone wishing to know more about the BII.

In addition, the BII through David Fox, director of insurance information, produces a quarterly newsletter called "The Bermuda Insurance Update".

This newsletter is now widely read by over 10,000 subscribers and is distributed via the BII's website, Reuters, Bloomberg, and RIMSNET. The Information Office is also kept busy with over 1,000 inquiries per year about the BII.

Pete says over the last five years, he has seen an influx of new students to the BII. He attributes this wave of students to the new companies coming to the island with a keen focus on training Bermudians to move ahead in the industry.

In the last five years, the BII has run 88 courses with 1,609 registrants. They have offered 65 seminars with 2,461 attendees. They have also helped 225 people to gain insurance designations.

Does the BII serve a purpose in the insurance industry? I would say unquestionably yes it does and it is one that needs to be fostered because without it, there would be nowhere for students to go who are trying to better themselves in the insurance industry or those who are seeking to change careers or trying to gain entry into the industry.

The BII needs the continued support of the community in order to be able to continue to educate the next generation of senior executives and employees of the Bermuda insurance 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