WHEN ACE opened its doors for business from hotel room number 348 at the Hamilton Princess 15 years ago, there were queues down the hallway waiting to sign up with the new company.

Businessmen from around the world had flown in by private jet specially to buy insurance. Neither love nor money could buy these big names in the United States at the time.

And John Cox, who set up the company way back when, looked at the ever-growing queue and rubbed his hands as he knew he was onto a winner. He had a string of to-die-for Fortune 500 clients and he was the only insurer at the time tailor-making policies just for them.

This charismatic man laid the foundations for the giant global empire that ACE has become today from a single hotel room.

Soon he had taken on employee number one Chris Marshall, who is still with the company today and is the Chief Financial Officer.

He has taken the company through three Chief Executive Officers, floating on the New York Stock Exchange and a period of huge expansion in which the company has grown to have nearly 8,000 employees world-wide.

Mr. Marshall became aware of ACE while he was working at Coopers and Lybrand in Bermuda. ACE was a client and the file on the company landed on his desk.

He was to do the audit of this brand-new business. But as he read the business plan, he started to get excited. He could see the future was bright for this fledgling insurance company which was not even up and running.

And the next day he walked in to his boss and told him he could not take on the audit as it would be a conflict of interest. He had decided to apply for a job there.

"It looked like a good business opportunity,'' he said. "It had a really, really good opportunity to succeed. It was the investors in the company that were so impressive. There were these huge companies looking for excess liability coverage and here was a company set up specially by them to provide it. Many of the shareholders were Fortune 500 companies with between $2.5 and $10 million each to spend.'' He added: "I was the first one hired. I am employee number one.'' The company was so small that all the first 100 employees know their number. Brian Duperreault is number 57.

At the age of 29 he became controller after convincing Cox he was the man for the job.

"I remember the first office we had. It was at Craig Appin House, in the Marsh offices. I remember we even shared desks. We all knew what was going on in such a small office.

"But we moved along very quickly, and set up the underwriting. One of the things we had in our favour was we reacted quickly to problems. There was no red tape of a huge organisation. It is something that we have all not lost as the company has grown, that ability to be flexible and adaptable and find quick solutions.

"Slowly we built up the infrastructure. The job I did then and the job I do now...there is no comparison really. In the same way that ACE has grown and evolved, so has my job. As the company has grown so have my responsibilities.'' The first major change he witnessed and was heavily involved in was when the company went public in 1993, and he had to steer the company from 250 or so shareholders to thousands overnight.

He said: "The whole nature of my job changed with the shift in access to the outside world that comes with being a publicly traded company.'' Following this was a period of acquisitions and globalisation. "I would say that the buying of CIGNA was a defining moment for the company. With Brian in charge we had the perfect platform to go global and we did. We had one of the newest insurance companies buying up one of the oldest in the world.'' He added: "The growth is amazing. We have gone from being a company with assets of $200 million to now about $30 billion. Our shareholder equity has gone from $200 million to $5.2 billion. From a staff of between one and 20 in a small office in Bermuda we now have nearly 8,000 world-wide. Just the sheer size of the company now is amazing. And we are still having fun.'' Donna-Mae Hindes was employee number four. She came in as an office temp, a hired in secretary to help out until they got up and running properly. Fifteen years on and she is still there, one of the company's oldest and most loyal employees.

She said the office was so small that everyone pitched in at the beginning.

She said: "We were all in one room, so you knew what was going on. There was one room and two offices with four of us in there. You kind of got the feel for the company pretty quick.

"As it grew it got more departmentalised, but it was and still is a close-knit company in a way.

"We didn't have policies in place, and when the first vacation time came up, we had to work it out. And when children got sick, what to do? Most people here at that time already had children or were about to have them. We used to have a lot of picnics and gatherings. It was a real family affair. Every birthday there would be cakes in the boardroom, and time would be set aside to have tea, coffee and cakes. It is still a tradition now, but only between departments. If it is your birthday, people bring goodies and an e-mail goes out. We used to come in early and put balloons around the desk, that was always someone's job.

"I remember Bill Lock, an underwriter who is still with the company, used to bring in hand painted Easter eggs for everyone. We would all get two or three left on our desk. It was that kind of company.'' She is now Investor Relations Manager and deals on a day-to-day basis with investor's queries about the company.

Brian Duperreault was a relative late-comer to the family fold, but laughs today at the family lore surrounding the early days.

He said: "Out of the ten original employees, six are still here. The other four have retired. In fact employees are very loyal to the company, we have found.'' He added: "Everyone knows their number. I am employee number 57. Neil Stemple was 56.'' He says one of the strengths of the company has been to have a good mix of locals and ex-pats.

ACE expands from small beginnings He arrived in October and in December said he approached CIGNA about acquiring it.

He said: "In December 1994 we were not ready for it. But I knew we could do great things.

"Bermuda is a great place to have a holding company. There is a good work force, good regulatory back-up and it is in a real insurance market and we have our headquarters in the middle of that and it helps the company tremendously.'' A year after he arrived, 1995, he had doubled the size of the staff and his vision to globalise the company was becoming a reality. Now the company is in 50 countries, most recently in Europe, parts of Asia and Latin America.

But he is not stopping there. He hopes to continue the expansion into Eastern Europe and the untapped markets of China and the rest of Asia.