Bermuda College graduate turned top reinsurance executive, Gino Smith, has been named as XL Group’s Latin America regional chief underwriter.Called a role model for Bermuda’s youth by industry veterans, Mr Smith will be based in São Paulo, Brazil where he has been located for the past two years.The Bermudian underwriter, who is fluent in English, Spanish, and Portuguese, has worked for XL for 12 years, during which time he has held progressively senior underwriting roles in all of XL’s reinsurance offices in Latin America, as well as in Bermuda.Before this promotion, Mr Smith was vice-president and senior treaty underwriter for XL’s reinsurance operations in Brazil.In his new role, Mr Smith, in close collaboration with XL Re Latin America Ltd president and COO Philippe Rochaix, will be responsible for coordinating and leading the design, implementation and execution of the underwriting strategy for all classes of business covered by XL’s reinsurance operations in Latin America. He will also be responsible for the technical development of the underwriting staff, underwriting governance and ceded reinsurance for Latin America.“Given the significance of the Latin America region to XL, we believe that it is important to have someone fully dedicated to the role of regional chief underwriter,” Mr Rochaix said. “Gino’s technical expertise and knowledge of the Latin American market makes him the perfect person for this position. His appointment reflects the strength and diversity of talent within XL’s reinsurance operations.”Mr Smith’s meteoric rise in the insurance industry was preceded by a childhood of racing bikes and at the time, his future on paper, might have looked uncertain.“In 1993 I used to go pack racing and I gave chase to the police. I personally witnessed two road deaths,” Mr Smith told a dinner aiuedience of hundreds in 2008 when he won Bermuda Insurance Institute’s 2007 Young (Re) insurance Person of the Year award.He went on to say his upbringing had been that of an average Bermudian and that he had been raised by a strong woman who had instilled in him some basic principles. “I was taught that life is unfair and that failure is a part of life and that I had better get used to it. I didn’t grow up with a sense of entitlement.”Although it seems, failure has eluded Mr Smith as he has risen through the ranks of the reinsurance industry at a brisk pace.In 1994, he graduated from Berkeley Institute and went on to Bermuda College where he was the first graduate to be named the Most Outstanding Insurance Student.He went on to graduate from the Peter J Tobin School of Risk Management at St John’s University, the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, and the Program for Leadership Development at Harvard Business School.He has had experience with Latin America having been posted in Argentina, Mexico and Colombia for three years, prior to working in Brazil.Mr Smith has also served as an officer of the Bermuda Regiment and as chairman of the BFIS Mentoring Committee — showing other young Bermudians the way toward insurance industry opportunities.“The idea of Bermudians taking leadership roles in the insurance industry is not happening by luck, it’s by design,” Mr Smith said.