WITH a bird's eye view over Basingstoke from his office at the top of the Winterthur Life building, Mike Kellard is in a good position to see how Basingstoke - a place he has come to know and love - is shaping up for the future.

However, back in 1999, it certainly was not a case of love at first sight when Mr Kellard left the beautiful rural county of Norfolk to head Winterthur's independent financial adviser sales channel, before becoming managing director of the company's Professional Advisers Division.

He recalled: "I first came to Basingstoke eight years ago, from Norwich Union, where I ran their distribution and marketing activities. My first impression was I'm not sure that I really want to live and work here'.

"But having moved here - and I have lived in Ireland, Scotland, England - I've found Basingstoke offers the best quality of life for me and my family - I think it is a great area."

However, while he is now firmly taken with the place from where he has spearheaded Winterthur's amazing transformation into a top-performing pensions and investment provider, if he was writing a report on the state of Basingstoke in 2007, it would read: "Could do better!"

He said: "The town has evolved tremendously, but it needs to do more so that more people can say, yes, it is a place to be proud of."

One of Mr Kellard's bones of contention is what confronts new arrivals when they leave the railway station.

"When the first thing you see outside of the railway station is that brick wall The Malls shopping centre, you think you have arrived in that old new town' environment. It's really 1970s architecture and looks really bad."

Comparing the appearance of The Malls with the modern look of Festival Place, Mr Kellard - who is now AXA Wealth Management and Winterthur chief executive officer - said first impressions count, just as they do when visiting a company.

He explained: "Here at Winterthur, we try to create a reception that is wide and open, one where the staff greet people in a nice professional way.

"That's the first contact you have with a company, and the first contact that half the visitors to Basingstoke are probably getting is walking out of the train station and looking at something that's not very nice."

Aware that there are plans to revamp parts of Basingstoke town centre, Mr Kellard believes that the decision makers have a golden opportunity to stamp their mark on the town.

"It's amazing what can happen if you put something into a place. Look at the Spinnaker Tower in Portsmouth for instance - all of a sudden it's created a focus, an emblem, that represents the city and it's drawing people down there.

"Why is it that big companies want to design these huge icons? It's to make sure people know who they are and what they are about.

"We need that type of thing here in Basingstoke - we need something that's quite striking and says something about the town and what we would like our town to stand for, to give it that wow' factor. At the moment, when I look out at the view from my window, it doesn't have it."

Like many people in the local business community, Mr Kellard, 44, who lives in the borough, is passionate about what Basingstoke has to offer.

"The place is fantastic - you can live out in the countryside or in the suburbs of the town. I can travel into work from a village on country roads during rush-hour within 20 minutes or I can jump on the motorway and go up to Bristol, where AXA's offices are, or go in to and out of Lon-don on the train, as the railway station is in front of my office building."

The move to Basingstoke at the turn of the century certainly proved to be a great career move for high-flying Mr Kellard. In the last few years, he has overseen an amazing transformation in Winterthur's fortunes.

He recalled: "When I joined, the company was very different to what it is today. Winterthur as a brand was bad and, where it was recognised, it was recognised for poor performance and poor service. We had a very low market share and virtually no growth."

It was this state of affairs that galvanised Mr Kellard - who became chief executive officer in 2003 - into developing a new strategy for the business by focusing on high-net-worth customers.

This direction, and the fact that Winterthur was one of the few companies to have its A-day IT and product platform ready for business when the pensions industry underwent a massive shake-up on April 6 last year, as the Government simplified the pension rules to allow greater freedom and flexibility for savers, has certainly paid off.

The company's individual insured pensions business has gone up 122 per cent to £1.59billion, compared with last year's £640million. The firm has also seen a rise in assets under its management to £10.43billion as of December 31, 2006 - up from £9bn in 2005.

It's this sort of performance that prompted French insurance giant AXA to buy the then Swiss-owned Wint-erthur Life for £5.4bn last year - and the new owners are delighted with their acquisition.

Paul Evans, chief executive of AXA Life, said: "These excellent new business figures underline the strong position Winterthur Life has built in the high-net-worth market and further emphasises Winter-thur's value to AXA."

Impressed by the way he has spearheaded Winter-thur's success, Mr Kellard has been given a hugely-expanded role by AXA's bosses, heading the new wealth management business for the parent company. He is also involved in developing a new fund management offering for the independent financial adviser (IFA) marketplace and has a seat on AXA UK's executive committee.

The fact that Winterthur is to remain a separate business, focused on the quality end of the market, is a vindication of the strategy the company has followed over the last four years since he became chief executive.

Picking out three reasons why the Basingstoke company proved to be so attractive to AXA, Mr Kellard said they would be Winterthur's clear market focus, a commitment to service excellence and a culture that focuses on people, encouraging innovation, openness and improvement.

While he clearly leads from the front, Mr Kellard is quick, and keen, to praise his staff in Basingstoke. Not only have they driven the business forward, but AXA's bosses have acknowledged that their employees can learn from the Winterthur culture.

"That is a real testament to what they have done and achieved," said Mr Kellard. "Everything has been a real challenge. We've cut back our expense base, we've massively increased our volumes and improved the quality of service."

His philosophy is all about getting the good people in place and then the right structure.

"Quite often in HR cultures, they will tell you, think of a structure and make sure you have the right boxes and fill them with people'.

"When they are telling me that, I think nope'. I know that if I get the right people in the wrong structure I will have a reasonably successful business, but if I get the wrong people in the perfect structure I will have a business that will collapse."

As well as achieving success in the marketplace, the Winterthur team has also made a very impressive impact in the local community.

Earlier this month, Winterthur handed over a cheque for £55,000 to Naomi House children's hospice - the Sutton Scotney-based charity that benefited from a year-long fundraising drive by staff at the Basingstoke firm.

Mr Kellard is proud of what has been achieved at Winterthur in the first years of the new millennium - and it's clear that the company's future prospects are bright.

Summing up, he said: "We've followed a new direction and that vision has positioned us really well in the marketplace."