Gail (Rosorea) Fox, was third time lucky when she returned from Queen's University in Canada with a BA degree in Biology and a Masters of Business Administration in 1980 and began job hunting.

She started in the mortgage and estate department of a local bank, but banking was not for her. Less than a year later, she was involved in reinsurance processing at Mentor Insurance, some years before it went into liquidation.

But that also was not quite her cup of tea. She left Mentor.

"I got to thinking that I needed to look for something that would be longer than 11 months on my resume m,'' she laughed. "I ended up here. I think it was just not being settled, wanting to find something that was a little different.'' The Warwick Academy graduate won a job as an assistant account executive at Alexander Insurance Managers Ltd. in 1982. But that too, only lasted a year.

This time, though, it was because she was promoted.

Her next job was account executive, dealing with client accounting in the financial services department. She was administering and preparing the financial reports for her own portfolio of clients.

She was promoted to vice president, client accounting January 1988, with responsibility for the financial management aspects of client services for all captives under management in Bermuda.

And last April, she was promoted again, this time to executive vice president, in charge of captive management with a staff of 35. There is an additional 12 people on the broking and other operations side of the firm.

She is a believer in her firm. She said: "This company has a record of promoting from within. I think that is very good. You don't always see that with companies.

"It has worked well for a number of qualified Bermudians. The company has always looked for advancement opportunities for people who are here.

"When I gave birth to my son in 1990, I was heading the accounting, or financial services department. I negotiated for a reduced working week. The company allowed me to do that and I know it wasn't easy for them.

"But it gave me an opportunity to balance family and career, and it meant that when the opportunity to head up the captive management operation in its entirety came along, I was still around.

"That was very positive on the company's part. They catered to working women, and although it was not easy to have a head of a department who was not there a day of the week, we ended up coming up with something that was comfortable for both parties.

"It left me positioned for this role which came up last year.'' Mrs. Fox is married to accountant Mr. Ian Fox and has two children Timothy, four, and Madeleine, who is two.

She conceded that she never expected to be a career woman, but always wanted to balance whatever profession she had with a family, even though she said, the family came later than she expected.

With a business perspective she said of Bermuda: "In terms of captive management opportunities here, Bermuda is still a valued domicile. It has established itself with an infrastructure that is of value to clients.

"There are continuing opportunities for captives and it will continue to grow, as long as we can maintain stability.

"I can recall reading one local view that no one would go through the difficulty of moving a captive out of Bermuda, someone who was addressing the issue of domestic stability. They seemed to think that the owners of captives would not simply leave Bermuda.

"But the truth is that it is not very difficult to move a captive. It is not complicated at all. It is very easy.

"Bermuda is still a leader in a soft market. Captives are still seen as a viable tool by a number of significant corporations. For the future of the business here though, stability, as I said before, is the key.'' AIML is a subsidiary of the global broking operation, Alexander & Alexander, parent to captive managers in all the major captive centres. They provide clients with professional service in all the various aspects of captive insurance company management. These include financial reporting, corporate services, insurance and claims service, and, investment and treasury service.

The Bermuda office runs 81 captives, leading their AIML counterparts in other jurisdictions. Last year, AIML's client-owned companies in Bermuda wrote in aggregate more than $260 million in premium and posted bottom line profits of $101 million. Combined company assets stood at $793 million and equity was pegged at $380 million.

"Captive management is a service industry. We provide a quality service in what is essentially a people business, where you have to make sure that a company's principles are comfortable with you and what you do. We are a client service industry.'' Mrs. Fox said that there is a host of opportunities for local people in international business and although she has heard some claim that Bermudians don't get a fair shake in the industry, she knows it is not true.

She said that although she climbed the corporate ladder from the finance side of the business, there were many opportunities on the insurance side.

But she admitted some level of concern about the increasingly aggressive behaviour exhibited on the Island that is a step in the unwelcomed process of moving Bermuda away from what has made it successful.

"It is a concern, but even when looking at staffing efficiencies, companies look at what they can get out of an employee. Every employee has to be a key employee. Companies are getting leaner and meaner. That's the name of the game.

"If you have staff members who believe that you need them more than they need the job, or they are not interested in a seven hour a day job, companies can't carry that type of posturing.

"Maybe it's a result of people growing up in a different environment. It's probably not a new thing, necessarily, but you hear clients who come here from other countries who notice it.

"They remember the days when the front page would have a large picture of the individual who grew the largest Easter Lily. Now they see murder, or the fact that 56 people had their bikes stolen on the weekend, and they leave here with a slightly different view of the Island.

"It's not a trend, but visitors are beginning to notice the change. And that could affect us down the road if it continues to get worse, especially because it is important to keep the client with a comfortable feeling.'' MRS. GAIL FOX -- "When I gave birth to my son in 1990, I was heading the accounting, or financial services department. I negotiated for a reduced working week. The company allowed me to do that and I know it wasn't easy for them. But it gave me an opportunity to balance family and career, and it meant that when the opportunity to head up the captive management operation in its entirety came along, I was still around.''