Axis Capital president and CEO John Charman and Don Kramer, CEO and chairman of Ariel Reinsurance, head the list of winners at the Bermuda Insurance Institute's (BII) 10th Annual Insurance Industry Awards.

The recipients will be honoured at a gala banquet held on Saturday, May 10, at the Fairmont Hamilton Princess.

Mr. Kramer is the recipient of the 2007 Lifetime Achievement Award in recognition of what he has done in the industry during his career, while the 2007 (Re)insurance Person of the Year goes to Mr. Charman, for his significant contribution to Axis and the Bermuda insurance market as a whole over the previous year.

Gino Smith, assistant vice-president and underwriter at XL Re Ltd., meanwhile, receives the 2007 Young (Re)insurance Person of the Year Award, as an individual under the age of 35 who, over the previous year, has made a significant contribution through promoting professionalism via education, conduct or ethics.

BII president Gerald Simons said: "It is important for us to recognise those who are making an important contribution to the insurance industry, which is so important to the welfare of all Bermudians."

Mr. Kramer has a long and distinguished history in the re/insurance industry and, in particular, with starting up reinsurers.

Prior to setting up Ariel Re, one of the new Bermuda reinsurers formed after the 2005 hurricane season, Mr. Kramer was CEO at Ace following his retirement from the board of directors in 2004.

Mr. Kramer joined Ace in 1996 as vice-chairman following the company's acquisition of Tempest Reinsurance Ltd., a property catastrophe reinsurer he founded in the wake of Hurricane Andrew in 1992 and served as its chairman and CEO from 1993 to 1999. He also served as chairman and director of Assured Guaranty Ltd. until May 2005, a company spun off from Ace Ltd. in 2004.

Prior to his role with Tempest Re, Mr. Kramer was president of his own firm, Kramer Capital Corp. between 1995 and 1999, and before that was chairman of the board and founder of NAC Re Corp. from 1985 to 1993, a company he developed from an inactive shell. He is currently a director of the National Benefit Life Insurance Co. of New York, (a subsidiary of Citigroup), of Atrium Underwriting and of Valiant Insurance Group.

Mr. Charman actively promotes the Bermuda insurance market and is a regular speaker at world-wide conferences, including the Merrill Lynch 2008 Insurance Investor Conference, the 2008 World Insurance Forum and the IAIS 2007 Annual Conference. Mr. Charman has served as CEO and president of Axis Capital and CEO and president of Axis Specialty Ltd. since he founded Axis Capital in 2001. Under his leadership, Axis Capital has completed six consecutive years of continuous progress in becoming one of the leading specialty insurance and reinsurance companies in the world.

Mr. Charman has more than 30 years' experience in the insurance industry and has been in a senior underwriting position since 1975. From 2000 to 2001, he served as deputy chairman of Ace INA Holdings and president of Ace International. He was also CEO at Ace Global Markets from 1998 to 2001.

Prior to that, Mr. Charman was CEO of Tarquin plc. (a joint venture company among Insurance Partners, Harvard University and the Charman Group), the parent company of the Charman Underwriting Agencies at Lloyd's. He was also a deputy chairman of the Council of Lloyd's and a member of the Lloyd's Core Management Group and Lloyd's Market Board between 1995 and 1997.

Mr. Smith, a Bermudian, joined the Island's insurance industry in 2000 as a graduate of the Berkeley Institute, Bermuda College, Don Quijote Instituto de Idiomas (Spain) and the College of Insurance in New York.

He earned scholarships from XL Capital Ltd., the Bermuda Foundation for Insurance Studies and the Risk Management and Insurance Society. Mr. Smith graduated from the Bermuda College with distinction in 1998 and was the first graduate to be named the Most Outstanding Insurance Student. He concluded his undergraduate studies at the College of Insurance, where he graduated first in his class and earned the distinction of being Class of 2000 Valedictorian.

Mr. Smith is primarily responsible for underwriting property catastrophe exposed reinsurance treaties at XL Re. In 2006, he was part of the underwriting team voted "Best Overall Bermuda Underwriters" by more than 1,000 respondents to a Reactions magazine survey. Prior to joining XL Re Ltd., he was employed with XL Re Latin America Ltd., which had him based in Argentina, Mexico and Colombia for three years. Mr. Smith is fluent in Spanish and Portuguese and has a working knowledge of Latin American business practices.

While in Latin America, he created underwriting manuals in Spanish and English, designed and implemented a claims management system and trained underwriters to use XL's pricing tools. After returning to Bermuda, Mr. Smith took on the role of referral underwriter and primary liaison between XL Re's offices in Latin America and the president and chief underwriting officer.