Two of the leading lights in Bermuda's re/insurance industry have been recognised with top awards from the Bermuda Insurance Institute (BII).

Michael Butt, chairman of the board of Axis Capital Holdings Ltd., has won the 2008 Lifetime Achievement Award, while Patrick Thiele, president and CEO of PartnerRe Ltd. received the 2008 (Re)insurance Person of the Year Award in the Eleventh Annual Insurance Industry Awards.

Meanwhile, Erica Symonds, assistant vice-president and excess liability underwriter at XL Insurance (Bermuda) Ltd., picked up the 2008 Young (Re)insurance Person of the Year Award.

The 2008 Selection Committee members also presented an extraordinary award to Bala Nadarajah, special legal counsel for Attride-Stirling & Woloniecki, to recognise his work and personal sacrifices made over the past few years in serving the Bermuda insurance industry in a legal advisory and regulatory capacity.

The recipients will all be honoured at a gala banquet held on June 6 at the Fairmont Hamilton Princess.

President of the BII, Laurie Orchard congratulated the recipients, saying: "It is important for us to recognise those individuals who have made significant contributions to the insurance industry and the broader Bermuda community.

"They are role models and mentors, which will serve the future members of our industry well. They have all been instrumental in the development of our market, and are laying the foundations for the success of our market in the future. This is important for our industry, and also for the welfare of all Bermudians."

The BII said Mr. Butt, who is the chairman of the Association of Bermuda Insurers and Reinsurers (ABIR) and a member of the Geneva Association, has been a non-partisan sounding board for legislators and a leader in the efforts to establish Bermuda as a substantial and respected financial services jurisdiction.

He has also been chairman of the World Insurance Forum for 10 years and a regular visitor to the Rendezvous de Septembre in Monte Carlo over the past 20 years.

From 1982 to 1986, Mr. Butt was the chairman of Sedgwick Ltd. and vice-chairman of the Sedgwick Group plc. Between 1987 and 1992, he served as chairman and CEO of Eagle Star Holdings plc. and Eagle Star Insurance Co. From 1993 to 1998, he was CEO and president of Mid Ocean Ltd.

Between 1998 and 2002, Mr. Butt was a director of XL Capital Ltd. He was also a director of the Farmers Insurance Group, BAT Industries and the Istituto Nazionale delle Assicurazioni, the operating holding company of the INA Group.

Mr. Butt has chaired Axis Capital since September 2002 and overall has more than 40 years of insurance industry experience. Mr.Thiele joined PartnerRe in 2000 and since 2002 the company has grown its book value per share at an 11 percent compound rate, grown its economic value per share at 13 percent and has increased its shareholder dividend every year since incorporation, including 2009.

In 2008 - a challenging year all-round - PartnerRe maintained its strong position in the market, preserved its reputation and its client base and produced an acceptable set of results, all of which reflected Mr. Thiele's commitment to intelligent risk management and success over the long-term.

Last year, he represented Bermuda's re/insurers at the International Regulatory Dialogue in Brussels, a group of regulators, insurers and interested parties discussing international insurance solvency regulation standards development. He also participated in the Roundtable on Financial Mechanisms and Risk Management instruments at the first United Nations Private Sector Forum on the Millennium Development Goals and Food Sustainability. Additionally, Mr. Thiele sits on the IIS and Geneva Association Boards.

As director and deputy chairman of ABIR, he has consistently called for appropriate regulation and greater transparency, has provided support for the Bermuda Monetary Authority's (BMA) transparency working group, and he talked to the International Monetary Fund on the Island's regulatory framework in its review of the country.

Ms Symonds graduated from the Bermuda College in 1995 and Rutgers University in 1998 with a degree in Marketing. She entered the Bermuda re/insurance market as a technical assistant at New Cap Re and worked as a casualty broker for Aon from 2000 to 2002.

Ms Symonds joined XL Insurance (Bermuda) in 2002 as an assistant underwriter and was promoted to assistant vice-president and excess liability underwriter in April, 2009. She is responsible for a significant book of business comprised of Fortune 1000 companies. During her time with XL Insurance she has travelled to various cities and worked for two months in XL Insurance's Dublin office.

Ms Symonds also serves as president of the Bermuda International Chapter of the Chartered Property Casualty Underwriters (CPCU) Society. She has been a member of the organisation for three years and has served in various roles, including vice-president and community relations officer. Having received her CPCU designation in 2006, she decided to become a part of the organisation and her proudest moment to date has been to bring the president of the worldwide CPCU Society to Bermuda for the first time in January, 2009.