XL Capital president Brian O?Hara launched a year of celebratory events yesterday by opening a commemorative wall at the company?s headquarters in Bermuda.

The company traces its existence back to a capacity shortage in the mid-1980s which threatened to wipe out available excess liability coverage and collapse US insurance markets.

With thousands of customers, but no product or capacity to sell, Bob Clements, then president of Marsh & McLennan, drew up a plan to solve his problem. It resulted in the formation of XL and Ace.

XL started out in 1986 in an office over a fish market in Bridgetown, Barbados where the only goal at the beginning was to survive, according to Mr. O?Hara.

?We were taking unprecedented risks and writing policies without the benefit of reinsurance. But it went better than we could have dreamed,? he said.

In 1990, XL moved to Bermuda. One year later after it sold $600 million in shares, ?we knew we were here to say,? said Mr. O?Hara.

Since then the company has grown from fewer than 100 people in two offices to 3,600 employees in 72 offices and is a mature player in a market which has since seen numerous new waves of start-ups as a result of other market changing events.

?It?s been an exciting journey, and it has contained aspects of adventure and surprise en route. But we have always prided ourselves in being a responsive and flexible organisation ? ready to seize opportunities as they arise,? said Mr. O?Hara adding that XL?s culture underpinned by core values of excellence, teamwork, development, ethics and respect have helped the company thrive.