Dublin and the insurance business have always gone hand in hand for the outgoing president of the Dublin Chamber of Commerce. Mr Hugh Governey is not a native of the city but his ties with Dublin and the insurance business go back 40 years.

Next month, Mr Hugh Governey will take over as group chief executive of the largest Irish-owned insurance brokers firm, Coyle Hamilton. From the age of 12, Mr Hugh Governey worked in his home town of Carlow during school holidays and he enjoyed the experience.

The Governey family was wellknown in the town's political life and ran several businesses. His first job was helping out in his uncle's photographic studio.

"Then I got a more regular job working in my father's mineral water factory and later in the family grocery shop, weighing up the butter and the sugar and slicing rashers. I really think that the experience of serving in the shop was invaluable when I got into business for learning how to get on with people," Mr Governey said.

There were only seven students in the Leaving Certificate class of 1960 in the Christian Brothers' school in Carlow. Mr Governey was one of them and he was a diligent student who was happy in the school.

"My two brothers went to boarding school but I really think I was very fortunate to live at home with my parents. They were both very involved in business and very politically aware and active. There were great discussions in our house in the evenings and I absorbed it all."

Mr Governey arrived in Dublin after completing his Leaving Certificate to begin a job as an insurance clerk in the Royal Exchange Assurance in College Green. He studied hard for the first three years, obtained his Associateship of the Chartered Insurance Institute and made good progress at the office. He was appointed area inspector in Carlow for a year in 1964.

Early in his career, Mr Governey decided that he really wanted to get into insurance broking rather than continuing to sell the products of one particular insurance company. In 1965, he began working for a company called VP Phillips & Co, a firm of brokers based in Dame Street.

VP Phillips & Co Ltd was one of three companies that came together in 1970 to form the Coyle Hamilton group. By the end of this year, Mr Governey will have been with the same firm for 35 years and it has suited him very well.

"It's a very exciting business to be in. We are more than just insurance brokers. Coyle Hamilton takes in pensions consultants, actuarial consultants, health and safety consultants and we operate in the personal and corporate insurance broking business.

"We organise insurance schemes for trade associations and corporate bodies. There's great variety," he says.

Mr Governey became managing director of the corporate broking division about 15 years ago and will become the group chief executive on April 14th.

Coyle Hamilton has offices in Dublin, Cork and Limerick and two in Britain. The company employs 380 people.

Management at Coyle Hamilton completed a buy-out in 1995 and according to Mr Governey, it has given a new lease of life to the company and has generated a tremendous team spirit. "Everybody at a senior level has a strong vested interest in seeing that the company continues to grow and to prosper."

And there are various possibilities for expansion on the horizon. "At the moment we are looking re at the moment looking at five possible acquisitions between Ireland and Britain which would be multimillion pound concerns," Mr Governey said.

On the issue of pensions, Mr Governey welcomes the recent changes in pension legislation. "We are very focused on these changes because they mean people are going to need far more advice than they ever needed before. Many people will now have control over their own pensions when they get to retirement age and they will therefore need expert help to determine how the fund should be managed."

Advances in information technology are hugely important for the insurance industry and Mr Governey says Coyle Hamilton is spending a considerable time concentrating on developments in the area.

"At the moment we're in the middle of a strategic planning process and technology is intertwined with everything that we are going to do from now on," he says.

"We need to make sure that we are at the leading edge of the use of technology in interacting with our clients and also with the insurance market."

Mr Governey sees the Internet as an excellent tool for communication with customers. "On the pension side, we need to be in a position where individual members will be able to directly access their pension details from us, just as they can directly access their bank account at the moment."

Mr Governey is sceptical about the long-term survival of fashionable dot.com start-ups.

"I'm more taken with the bricks and clicks concept where companies like ourselves that are well established will add on a dot.com element to drive a good business even faster forward."

Mr Governey thoroughly enjoyed his time as president of the Dublin Chamber of Commerce. "It was great, but it didn't take up too much of my time because in the Dublin Chamber we have a very good management structure and team led by Jim Miley."

The outgoing president also praises the "early-bird approach" of the chamber. He points out that most of the meetings begin before 8 a.m. clock in the morning.

"Even on the social side of the chamber, we have found in the past two years that it's much easier to get significant numbers of people to come to a breakfast to hear a speaker than to come to a lunch."

The issue of traffic aside, Mr Governey is very enthusiastic in his praise of Dublin. "This city is a wonderful place to live, we have the mountains and the sea nearby and lovely parks."

He lives in Rathmines with his wife Christine and two teenage children. "We are very happy living so near the city centre and I often walk home from work or from functions in town."

While Mr Governey is clearly happy with his place in Dublin, he is also well aware that social problems continue to plague some inner city communities.

"I first became involved with projects and organisations for the disadvantaged areas of the city through the Dublin Chamber of Commerce about five years ago. Since then my interest in the Business Innovation Centre, the Inner City Partnership, and the Dublin Schools Business Partnership has continued and that is something I hope to always keep up."