Jill Husbands has just been appointed head of Marsh's Bermuda Captive Solutions Group - and has already signalled her intent to get more young Bermudians into the captive insurance market industry.

Along with her new role, Ms Husbands will continue to lead business development for Marsh's captive management practice in the Americas and will head up a team of deputy Heather Oakley and director of client relations Clayton Price, who retain their responsibility for the firm's client service teams in Bermuda, at their base in Victoria Hall.

She is planning to attract more of the Island's youth into one of Bermuda's biggest and most lucrative sectors of captive insurance in the process.

Marsh has a staff of 110, including their Captive Management Office and brokers and sister company Guy Carpenter, for whom Ms Husbands is in charge of all of its clients, employees and operations.

"I have retained my prior role as well and now I am responsible for business development for Marsh's Captive Solutions Group, so I am doing both jobs now," she said.

"I am also doing the day-to-day client services as well now."

Ms Oakley and Mr. Price, who are both senior vice-presidents of the company, will form the backbone of Ms Husbands' team and she believes their respective backgrounds in accountancy and insurance will stand them in good stead.

"Both Heather and Clayton are quite senior people in our organisation - they are both senior vice-presidents and they have both worked for Marsh for many years, at least a minimum of 20 each," she said.

"Heather has a background as an accounting professional and is going to be the deputy office head - in captive management much of what we do is accounting by nature and so Heather's expertise in accounting will mean she will really be leading much of the day-to-day operations that will be going on and Clayton is an insurance professional and he will be spending more time in client relations - one of the things we are trying to do is increase our client focus."

Ms Husbands already has a number of ideas on how to improve Marsh's captive insurance coverage in the pipeline, but, currently, they are still under wraps while it is being discussed with staff.

"It is all very new and we are actually working through a lot of that right now," she said.

"We are talking it through with staff and getting people's feedback and we are holding focus group meetings to get their consensus."

Ms Husbands, who is an associate of the Chartered Institute of the UK, started as an insurance officer in Marsh's captive operations in Bermuda in 1984 and worked her way up through the ranks to department head of the insurance and claims activities of all the Island's captives managed by the company and took responsibility of the new incorporation activities and new business development.

Having experienced both sides of the divide as a broker and underwriter in the Bermuda and London markets earlier in her career, Ms Husbands said one of the biggest changes she has seen during her time in the captive market industry was the transition from straight forward captive insurance work to catering for the needs of redomicling businesses.

"I think when I started in captive management what we did was purely captive, but now it is a growing and increasing industry and we do a lot of company insurance, so when these insurance companies come to set up in Bermuda they need office space and staff and help with HR, so we provide all of these services.

"So that has been quite a significant change and one that I have personally enjoyed very much and there has been significant growth in Bermuda generally of the captive market."

And she reckons the biggest challenge facing the captive sector in the future is sourcing and retaining qualified young Bermudian employees.

"I think one of the biggest challenges, not just for Marsh, but for the captive industry as a whole, is actually being able to get qualified staff," she said.

"That is a very big issue for us - we want Bermudian staff and in fact the focus groups and what we are going to be discussing in the next few weeks has to be ways we can encourage young Bermudians to come into our industry - we really want to put a lot more emphasis on that.

"We are going to just make sure we get out there and that people understand about captive insurance and what it means and we are going to have a booth at the careers fair that is coming up next month and I am hoping to go into Bermuda College next semester and talk to some of the Second Year students about captive insurance and considering captive insurance for their career.

"We have also just opened an office in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and many Bermudians are going to college in that area and we are hoping we will go into those universities there and try and attract young Bermudians into our industry, but, definitely getting educated and qualified staff is a major challenge in this line of work."

Ms Husbands also wants to see Bermuda maintain its position as the world's number one captive insurance market.

"I think we just need to keep up the good work, but, equally, I don't think we should become complacent," she said.

"There is a lot of strong competition out there and there are always markets developing and a lot of people are envious of Bermuda's success and want to emulate that, so we have to remain competitive at all times to stay one step ahead."

Andrew Carr, global head of Marsh's Captive Solutions Practice, said: "While we continue to see growth in the captive formations and innovative uses of these facilities around the world, Bermuda remains the global hub of the captive industry.

"Under the leadership of Jill, Heather, and Clayton, we are able to bring clients the very best the industry has to offer."