Bermuda Captive Insurance Fred Reiss Award Will Go to Brian Hall

Bermuda captive insurance pioneer Brian R. Hall, OBE, a former director and president of Johnson & Higgins credited with taking the island's captive insurance industry to global relevance, will receive the third Fred Reiss Lifetime Achievement Award at the upcoming Bermuda Captive Conference (June 11–13).

A graduate of Saltus Grammar School, Mr. Hall served as chair of Bermuda College and the Insurance Advisory Committee, as well as founder and trustee advisor of the Bermuda Foundation for Insurance Studies (BFIS). He was also founding president of the Bermuda Insurance Management Association (BIMA) during a notable insurance career spanning over 4 decades on the island, including 5 years spent working directly with Mr. Reiss.

"Brian is a true pioneer in the island's captive insurance industry," said Mike Parrish, Bermuda Captive Conference chair. "His contributions to both insurance and educational organizations in Bermuda have demonstrated his long and sincere commitment to the island and generations of Bermudians who followed him into the industry. Much of the success we enjoy as a sector today can be attributed to Bermuda-based entities he led and inspired."

The award, launched in 2016, is named in honor of Mr. Reiss, a pioneering Ohio engineer who conceived the idea of "self-insurance," by which corporations could manage their own risks through a dedicated subsidiary. Starting with American steel companies, Mr. Reiss pursued the concept in Bermuda, launching the first captive in 1962. The sector recorded exponential growth over the next 5 decades, distinguishing Bermuda as the world captive leader and fueling the foundation of the island's entire insurance industry.

The conference launched the award to celebrate the collaboration of outstanding captive insurance industry professionals. Jill Husbands, former chairman and current managing director of Marsh IAS Management Services (Bermuda), was selected the inaugural winner, while Michael Burns, a leading Bermudian corporate lawyer, was the 2017 awardee. This year's award will be presented to Mr. Hall at the official opening of the conference on the morning of Tuesday, June 12, at the Fairmont Southampton.

"I am overwhelmed to be receiving this award and am greatly honored to be recognized after so many years of service," said Mr. Hall, who now lives in Virginia and will travel to Bermuda for the conference. "I am incredibly proud of my fellow Bermudians in their success in bringing Bermuda to the forefront of the captive insurance world. I knew Fred Reiss many years ago, and I am thankful for the opportunity to have started in this business with him."

Born in 1941 in Denton, a small town near Manchester, UK, Mr. Hall moved to Bermuda in 1958 to join his parents and got a job at age 17 working for a nascent American International Group. In 1964, he was hired by Mr. Reiss as a captive account manager for International Risk Management, Mr. Reiss's company, where Mr. Hall spent 5 years. He then launched his own firm, Inter-Ocean Management, that began running captive operations for global insurance brokerage Johnson & Higgins, for which Mr. Hall was named CEO and president in 1979, and later chair. Johnson & Higgins Global Captive Management grew to 17 offices and 400 employees worldwide before merging with Marsh & McLennan in 1997.

Importantly, Mr. Hall helped develop the industry's future through educational initiatives. Among his many roles and achievements, he founded BFIS in 1996 and became chairman emeritus of the nonprofit, which provides opportunities for Bermudian students to gain necessary education and training to enter the insurance sector. He led the Board of Governors as chair of Bermuda College and was nominated by Bermuda's government to receive an Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (OBE) by the Queen in 1998 for his services to the insurance industry.

Mr. Hall served as a board member for Renaissance Reinsurance and helped create BIMA, today the captive sector's primary industry organization, an association of professional insurance managers and captive service providers that works to protect the interests of members and clients. In 2001, he received a lifetime achievement award from the Bermuda Insurance Institute.

Today, he remains professionally connected to Bermuda through partnership with Oyster Consulting Bermuda, a company that delivers compliance and other services to financial industry clients.

Fred Reiss Lifetime Achievement Award 2018 winner Brian Hall is pictured above. Photo courtesy of the Bermuda Business Development Agency.