On Friday, Ms Madeline Joel jetted to Florida to focus on the next chapter in her flourishing amateur golf career.

Next month, she moves from a top insurance brokerage firm to an insurance company to begin a new chapter in her equally successful professional career.

A woman on the move, her departure from the senior vice presidency at Aon Intermediaries (formerly Rollins Hudig Hall) came without missing a heartbeat.

She had been with RHH for several years, rising to senior vice president.

She started her insurance career in 1978 as a secretary at captive management company Marsh & McLennan. She took her Bermuda Insurance Institute Diploma in 1980 and then her Associate of Chartered Insurance Institute (ACII).

She joins excess liability insurer ACE Ltd. on February 9 as vice president, marketing. She puts it simply: "At the end of the day I'm going to be marketing with ACE, which is what I've done as a broker, as well. For the last eight years I've been marketing their product to my clients and to my ex-associates in RHH. And now I'll just be out marketing direct to clients.

"I thought for a long time that this would be something that I would really enjoy doing. It's very much what I've been doing at Aon for the last two years. I've been doing less of the broking and more of the marketing. And of course, ACE is a great company.'' She has been with Aon for nine years considering the Frank B. Hall and RHH connection.

She moved into insurance "purely because of an interest in what the exempt company business was all about''.

"After six months in the industry I had an opportunity to train as an assistant broker. I've been in the broking business ever since I took a year's sabbatical when I got married,'' she said.

A Whitney institute graduate, she obtained her Business Administration degree through the University of Maryland at the Naval Air Station. Her initial aim was to be a physical education teacher.

She sees insurance and international business in general as providing significant opportunities for young Bermudians.

"Very few of the school guidance counsellors are even aware of the international market here, and of the various insurance companies that want young Bermudians. The counsellors are not fully equipped with the information that they need, to be able to promote the insurance industry or international business.

"That has been recognised through recent studies that have been done and I think that steps are being taken to change that.'' She is a long way away from her two years in hospitality at Sonesta Beach Hotel, and has matured from the days she was first considered Bermuda's most beautiful woman, being crowned Miss Bermuda and Miss Photogenic in 1978.

"It was just another part of my life that I found challenging and interesting and I think that set me up with a lot of qualities that I've been able to use,'' she said.

The talented Ms Joel was also a professional dancer, one of the original members of the Bermuda Dance Theatre. But that too came as a result of her early classical training in the demanding and rigorous Russian School of Ballet with local dance icon Patricia Gray.

"That instilled a lot of discipline in me, which I credit with a lot of the successes I have today.'' Not the least of those successes is her athletic career, representing Bermuda in golf. She plays off a one-handicap, and for the uninitiated, that means she is already at a level of expertise that many millions only dream of. She is one of Bermuda's best women players.

She is in Fort Lauderdale right now preparing to compete in the Doherty Cup at the Coral Ridge Country Club January 18-21, before teaming up with another Bermuda favourite, Ginette Spinucci, to play the International Four-Ball at Orangebrook Country Club January 24-28.

"My golf is not right now where I would want it to be. For the last 12-18 months I've had a lot of other things on my mind with work, things that really consumed me.

"That's one of my new year's resolutions: to get back into some golf and bring it back to the level that I know I can be at.'' Ms Joel was introduced to the game about 11 years ago by her husband (Nick Warren), who himself is no slouch, at a seven-handicap, she says.

Mr. Warren shares insurance and golf with his wife. He is the manager of Somers Isles Insurance Company.

Ms Joell explained: "I decided to learn the game because I refused to be a golf widow. My husband has been very encouraging in golf and in all other aspects of my life. And it's turned out great because we can go out and play together at a very competitive level.'' There are no children. She said, "I have a lovely husband. He's a pretty special person. We have been married ten and a half years. My career has been such that it hasn't allowed for children, I suppose. I wouldn't say it's on my priority list.'' ON THE MOVE -- Ms Madeline Joel