returning to Bermuda. Three years out of business school, Miss Hansford-Smith is currently the company's vice president for e-commerce, stock exchanges and alternative risk financing. Last month she sat down with reporter Adam Cooper . Were you always in e-commerce? I was always doing technology-based stuff. A lot of the areas I work in is speaking to clients about the risks, whether they're insurance or risk-management related. Originally it was Y2K -- I joined just as Y2K was starting to happen. A lot of it is working with the FT-100 or the large clients that we deal with out of London and presenting to them about the technology risks, which was Y2K and e-commerce. A lot of people say they're going to put a lot of money into something, but they don't look at the insurance aspects or the legal aspects. A lot of the work I do is talking to the clients about that area. Then if they want an insurance solution, Marsh, the group, we would design it for them. But a lot of the clients want education right now. A lot of them are jumping on to the e-commerce bandwagon and they're realising that there are issues that they need to resolve before they go forward. My other area is intellectual property. I help Marsh offices and their clients. It's kind of like being a resource.

*** When you say present- ing, what exactly do you mean? At that time, it was presenting on the services and solutions that Schroders could provide to a captive manager to invest their money. Now in London, I present before big conferences.

*** The industry in London sounds very Europe- focused. Is it like this? It is. What you find is the New York operation deals with the States, whereas in London we see European and Middle Eastern clients, and even some Asian clients to a degree. London, for Marsh, tends to deal with everywhere in the world except for the US and Canada. In London, you could be presenting in front of an Israeli client or an Indian client and that gives you quite a lot of exposure which when coming home gives you much more depth because Bermuda's becoming much more international as it tries to expand and grow. So if Bermuda does become quite a centre for e-commerce, they may be dealing with Indians, they may suddenly be seeing Europeans who they haven't dealt with in the past.

*** So you started in Bermuda, and then went away. You didn't do it the other way around? No, I am Bermudian. I went to Warwick Academy. Then I went to university at Dalhousie. Then I came back and worked for Schroders for four years and then went to do a Masters in the UK and stayed over there to have some experience in the insurance industry for a while working in the London operation.

*** Being in insurance, you're also somewhat lucky that you've got something to come home to.

Yeah. Because insurance is so powerful on the Island, it would be easier for me to come home. I joined Marsh in London because it had a Bermuda link.

Everywhere I applied in London were companies that had big operations here, to keep me somewhat close to home. And I've purposely tried to keep to the industry that can allow me to come back.

*** When do you think you'll come back to Bermuda? I don't know. At the moment, I'm preparing to move to Belgium for a year to get more experience because a lot of the work I do is Europe-wide. I have the ability to work in Europe and I thought that until that course in my life has run out, then I might return. I think I have a bit more to learn in Europe.

And then I quite like the idea of working in Asia. It gives another added dimension to what I've been doing. It's all experience which if you bring it back to the Island, helps the Island.

*** Speak French? I speak very little French, but obviously to go anywhere in Europe, you need to improve your language skills. So I'll take immersion courses or something like that. It's quite a good opportunity. It's great working with the different cultures all around Europe -- they are all so different and the companies are so different.

*** What kind of hours do you work? In insurance in London, they believe you have some kind of life. I get in for eight and I can leave there at 5.30 or six. It depends on how much I've been travelling. If people aren't travelling a lot, they may work longer hours in the office. I travel a lot in and out of continental Europe, which means I get up very early and get back very late.

*** How often do you travel then? It alternates. Sometimes it's once a week, twice a week into continental Europe and that will go on for two months, and then I won't go anywhere. When I move to Brussels or Antwerp, there will probably be slightly more travelling. I will be working with all of the European offices and I'll probably have to visit them more often than I do now.

*** How did you get into the insurance/finance field? My undergraduate degree was in management and when I came back to Bermuda, I had worked at the Bank (of Bermuda) for several summers and I'd worked in different divisions of the bank. When I came home, an ad for Schroders came up and they were looking for someone who would fill an "anything'' role. It could be presenting in front of a client, doing some treasury work, a little bit of computer work. It was sort of a mish-mash of things -- which was great, because I got to see different divisions within Schroders. A lot of Schroders was still oriented to the insurance industry then, so I spent a lot of time presenting to the captive managers. Moving from that, I found the insurance industry really interesting. In order to understand who I was presenting to -- the end client -- I started taking the Bermuda Insurance Diploma and then I took the ACII, which is the associate set of exams. And after four years of doing that, the plan was to go and get a Masters, which is what I did.

*** What has going to London done for your career? It give you exposure to a huge range of clients from Europe and elsewhere that I might not have seen here, because in Bermuda you tend to see the US side of things. I sit down in front of an FT-100 client and I've really got to prepare for it and be on the ball.

*** What do you think the most important thing one has to do if one wants to get where you are? Education is really important. But you don't finish your education when university is over. I think it is important to continue that educational process -- take night classes, get a professional qualification, things like that. I also think working abroad, if you can do it, is a good experience and just see the difference in how that country operates, because you bring that all back, which makes Bermuda stronger.

*** Does it really matter what one studies at university? Working overseas, they look for a business degree. But if you can demonstrate that you will be an asset to them, ultimately I don't think they worry about it all that much. Mine were business degrees, so it was slightly easier. But I work with people in London who have all sorts of bizarre degrees.

*** How often do you come back to Bermuda? At least once a year, if not twice.

*** Have you ever come on business? I go to New York on business, and then I come home from there.

*** Am I allowed to ask how old you are? Yeah, I'm 30.

*** Going places: Lisa Hansford-Smith