Banker to be named new Aviva chairman ‘in weeks’

The Dumfries-born banker made his name turning round the fortunes of Australia and New Zealand Bank, which he led for 10 years until 2007, and is currently a non-executive director at Royal Bank of Scotland.

Mr McFarlane will take over the post currently held by Lord Sharman, who has been chairman of the FTSE 100 company since January 2006.

The Financial Services Authority has to approve the appointment, but it is expected Mr McFarlane will be unveiled as chairman in the next few weeks.

Barclays deputy chairman Sir Richard Broadbent had been seen as an early front-runner for the Aviva role but instead opted to take the chairman’s seat at Tesco, a Sunday newspaper reported.

Aviva, which has its UK life business based in York, employs 4,800 Yorkshire staff.

The Aviva appointment comes at a key time for the insurer following the surprise exit of UK chief executive Mark Hodges, who was named last week as the new boss of Towergate.

He had been tipped as a potential successor to group chief executive Andrew Moss, who has held the role for four years.

Mr Hodges may lead Towergate through an initial public offering, one of the options it is considering to fund future growth plans.

The group, founded by Peter Cullum, is Europe’s largest independently owned insurance intermediary and generates more than £2bn of gross written premiums a year.

It has acted as a consolidator in the industry, acquiring more than 170 underwriting and broking firms since 1997. It now employs 4,000 staff across 100 UK offices, including 400 staff at eight sites in Yorkshire.

Mr Hodges will be replaced by Trevor Matthews, the former CEO of Friends Provident and Standard Life’s life and pensions business.

Succession planning at Aviva is expected to be a key part of Mr McFarlane’s job, given that it is thought Mr Moss will stand down in the next two years.

Mr McFarlane, who has dual British and Australian citizenship, started his business career in the motor industry with Ford before he moved to Citigroup, where he led its UK and Ireland operation.

Aviva employs 2,750 people in York, 1,700 in Sheffield and 330 in Leeds.