Dr Philippe Rouja To Speak At Conference
Bermudian marine heritage expert Dr Philippe Rouja will give the keynote speech at this fall’s Bermuda Captive Conference [September 10–13] at the Fairmont Southampton.
With more than 20 years’ experience, Dr Rouja is an accomplished researcher who currently serves as Principal Scientist at the Department of Conservation Services as well as Custodian of Historic Wrecks for the Bermuda government.
His address, “A Shipwreck Cornucopia,” scheduled for noon, Tuesday, September 12 in the hotel’s Mid-Ocean Amphitheatre, will highlight Bermuda’s unique shipwreck history.
“It’s a great opportunity to be the keynote speaker for this year’s Captive Conference,” said Dr Rouja. “I’m really looking forward to talking about Bermuda’s shipwreck heritage with this audience. It is fitting, perhaps, that an island that posed such a risk to mariners should become a global centre for risk management.”
Dr Rouja has been exploring the island’s waters since childhood, and says he remains deeply connected to Bermuda’s marine environment. He has been featured on numerous documentaries and television series.
Bermuda Captive Conference keynote speaker Dr Philippe Rouja
“It’s surprising how little people know about shipwrecks in Bermuda when one considers the Bermuda Triangle is such a well-known theme,” Dr Rouja says. “
What always makes me pause is the sheer number of shipwrecks around Bermuda and the frequency with which ships met with disaster in the past. The risks were formidable, but I imagine the rewards must have been equal to those risks. And the alternative risk of not venturing out—not taking the risks and staying home—were just as high in past eras.”
In 2000, Dr Rouja and late Canadian epidemiologist Éric Dewailly founded the ongoing Ocean Human Health Research Programme to pursue research with local and indigenous marine specialists. Dr Rouja is also a trustee of the Adara Foundation and is adjunct faculty at the Bermuda Institute for Ocean Sciences.
“We’re privileged to have Philippe speak to this year’s event, and we know our delegates will find his research and discoveries fascinating,” said Conference Chair David Gibbons. “We’re particularly proud to highlight a talented Bermudian, and a topic so intrinsically connected to Bermuda heritage and identity.”
The conference was shifted from its regular calendar slot in June to this fall, due to the America’s Cup. Last year’s 12th annual event attracted a record-breaking 800-plus delegates, with more than 50 percent travelling to Bermuda from the United States, Canada, Latin America, and the United Kingdom. They included 147 captive insurance owners, 70 sponsors, 49 vendors, and the result was a total of 900 hotel-room nights booked during the event’s duration.
The 2017 Bermuda Captive Conference will highlight the topic of “Innovation”: how captive insurers respond to changes in their business and the environment in which they operate. Included among sessions slated for the agenda are:
- New insurance solutions: technology and cyber, ILS, incorporated cells, new insurance products and solutions, life insurance
- Technology advances and developments: data management and storage, IT security, self-driving cars, intelligent robots
- Medical and healthcare: impact of new research and medical developments and advances, cost and benefit impacts, effect of changes to working lives and longer lifespans
- Climate change: the impact on risk and insurance needs, insurer and reinsurer responses to changes
- Political, regulatory, economic and social change, and the challenges each create
Bermuda’s captive insurance market is the global leader, with close to 800 companies generating more than $55 billion in annual gross written premiums. Captives are also increasingly popular tools for wealth preservation and succession planning for HNWIs and family offices.
A conference schedule and registration information can be found at www.bermudacaptive.bm. For more information on sponsorship, exhibiting or attending the Bermuda Captive Conference, call +1-441/295-2626 or email info@bermudacaptive.bm.
