BII announces 2012 Insurance Industry Awards

Roger Gillett, Stephen Catlin and Chris Estwanik won top honours as insurance leaders.

 The Bermuda Insurance Institute announced the winners of the 2012 Insurance Industry Awards on Thursday. The recipients will be honoured at a ceremony to be held on May 16 at the Bermuda Underwater Exploration Institute. 

Roger Gillett

Mr Gillett won the the Lifetime Achievement Award.

He is past chairman of the Insurance Development Council. 

A press release stated “He has devoted his life before and after retirement to developing and promoting Bermuda as a domicile and market of choice within the global (re)insurance industry. During his career, which spans more than 40 years, Roger has been at the forefront of significant market developments.”

Mr Gillett worked at Johnson & Higgins for some 20 years, where he was responsible for developing their global captive management operations and attracted many captives to the island. 

In November 1997 he joined ACE Bermuda as senior vice president Business Development. During his time with ACE Bermuda he held progressively more senior roles, including president of ACE Risk Management International, before retiring in July 2007. 

For almost two decades, Mr Gillett has served, by Government appointment, on the Insurance Advisory Committee (“IAC”) including as Chairman of the IAC Marketing Committee, the Insurance Development Council and is a past president of the Bermuda Insurance Institute Council. 

He was instrumental in helping to establish the Bermuda Captive Insurance Conference and the Bermuda Insurance Underwriting Conference which continues as a successful annual insurance event. Roger now serves as a director on a number of companies here and overseas. Last year he was appointed the chairman of the Bermuda Branch of the Institute of Directors. 

Stephen Catlin

The Insurance Leader of the Year Award will go to founder and CEO of Bermuda-registered Catlin Group, Stephen Catlin. He has led Catlin for 30 years taking it from inception in 1984 as a two person syndicate of Lloyd’s of London to a US $5 billion international insurer with more than 55 offices in 21 countries. Catlin incorporated a holding company in Bermuda in 1999, originally called Catlin Westgen Holding Limited and later renamed Catlin Group Limited. 

Catlin was the first of the traditional Lloyd’s of London managing agents to establish a holding company in Bermuda. 

Mr Catlin was chairman of the Lloyd’s Market Association, the trade association representing the interests of Lloyd’s underwriters and underwriting agents, from May 2000 to January 2003. During 2001 he helped plan the restructuring of Society of Lloyd’s as a member of the Chairman’s Strategy Group. 

He has been active in the Bermuda business community for well over a decade. He became deputy chairman of the Association of Bermuda Insurers and Reinsurers this year. 

He was also granted an Associateship of the Chartered Insurance Institute from the Chartered Insurance Institute in the UK in 2012. 

Chris Estwanik

The Young Industry Leader of the Year Award recognizes an individual under the age of 35 and will be presented to Chris Estwanik. 

He is a runner, an assistant vice president, Underwriting at Validus Services (Bermuda) Ltd. He joined Validus in 2007 as an analyst and during the past five years was promoted to assistant underwriter, then underwriter then to his current position. His rapid career progression can be attributed to his self discipline, strong work ethic and his hunger for knowledge demonstrated by his enthusiastic pursuit of qualifications. He completed the Associate of Reinsurance (ARe) in 10 months and gained his Chartered Property Casualty Underwriter (CPCU) designation in 18 months. He is an active member of the Bermuda CPCU Society and the Bermuda Independent Underwriters Association. In addition to his dedication to his family, career and athletics, he devotes much of his time to speaking to young people at schools, sports clubs and within the industry about the importance of goal setting. He is considered a role model by many within the community. n

Also, for the first time in the history of the Insurance Industry Awards, a Corporate Social Responsibility Award will be presented to a company – The Argus Group, for their socially responsible leadership which has benefitted many facets of the Bermuda community. The selection committee felt that although there are larger organizations in Bermuda with well established charitable foundations that contribute very significant resources to community needs, what stood out about The Argus Group was how completely integrated the charitable and community mindset is throughout their entire organization, and how they focus their efforts on a day-to-day basis. Their focus on community education, promotion of health and positive lifestyles and their very deep reach into the broad community with a limited resource pool is hugely impressive. The selection committee felt the management and staff at The Argus Group deserved to be recognized for this ongoing commitment to improving life in Bermuda. 

CEO of the BII Dawnnelle Walker congratulated the recipients and said: “There are many talented persons working in the Insurance and Reinsurance industry in Bermuda. The industry also provides a great deal of support to the Bermuda community. The Bermuda Insurance Industry Awards gives us an opportunity to recognize professional excellence and community commitment. The BII Awards Ceremony is a celebration of the industry’s achievements.”