New chairman for Aviva

The group, which has around 4,800 Yorkshire employees, said John McFarlane will become a non-executive director on September 1. He will then become deputy chairman on 1 January 2012 and take up the position of chairman from Lord Sharman of Redlynch at the end of June 2012.

Mr McFarlane is currently a non-executive director of Royal Bank of Scotland Group and Westfield Holdings and was for 10 years chief executive officer of Australia and New Zealand Banking Group (ANZ).

Other senior positions include group executive director at Standard Chartered, head of Citibank in the UK and Ireland, a non-executive director of the London Stock Exchange and a member of the Auditing Practices Board and The Securities Association, UK securities regulator.

Mr McFarlane will step down from the board of the Royal Bank of Scotland by March 31 2012 and will relocate from Australia to the UK to join Aviva.

Lord Sharman said: “John McFarlane’s extensive experience as both an executive and non-executive director in international financial services will be invaluable to Aviva. Under his leadership ANZ became one of Australia’s most respected and best performing companies. I am very pleased that John is joining Aviva - he is an exceptional addition to an already strong board and will continue our focus on delivering shareholder value and serving all of Aviva’s constituents.”

Mr McFarlane said: “I am delighted to be joining Aviva in such an important role. Aviva is a great company and an excellent brand and recent results show that the hard work over the last few years is paying off. I’ve been impressed with the people I have met and look forward to working with them. Aviva has a very promising future and I will be pleased to contribute to its ongoing success.”

Richard Karl Goeltz, senior independent director, added: “Aviva has benefitted significantly from Lord Sharman’s deep understanding of international business and public policy and his decisive, sagacious leadership which has been invaluable in the recent tough economic times. With the succession from Lord Sharman to John McFarlane, Aviva will see one highly experienced business leader succeeded by another.”