Dame Amanda Blanc
Group Chief Executive Officer
We have generated growth right across Aviva, thanks to our leading positions in attractive markets such as workplace pensions and general insurance in the UK and Canada.
Aviva continues to benefit significantly from the balanced and diversified business we have built and lead. We are the only UK insurer which can look after customers’ entire insurance, wealth and retirement needs, and this is paying off. We remain very positive about Aviva's prospects.
Nationality: British
Appointed to the Aviva plc Board as a Non-Executive Director on 2 January 2020 and as Group Chief Executive Officer on 6 July 2020.
Amanda was born and bred in Wales, having grown up in the Rhondda Valley, and many of her family still live there.
She started her career as a graduate at one of Aviva’s ancestor companies, Commercial Union. Following success in senior executive roles across the insurance industry, she came back to Aviva as CEO in July 2020.
Priorities at Aviva
Amanda has greatly simplified Aviva, successfully divesting eight non-core businesses. Aviva is now focused on our core markets in the UK, Ireland and Canada. Amanda has also overseen a significant strengthening of Aviva’s financial position.
Amanda is now focused on accelerating Aviva’s performance: capitalising on the structural growth opportunities in our core markets; providing customers with a simpler, more personalised offering; transforming our cost base and delivering our market-leading sustainability commitments. Aviva is the first major insurer in the world to target becoming net zero by 2040.
Career highlights
Amanda was formerly Group CEO at AXA UK, PPP & Ireland and CEO Europe, Middle East, Africa & Global Banking at Zurich Insurance Group. She also held executive leadership positions at Towergate Insurance Brokers, Groupama Insurance Company and Commercial Union.
She has previously served as Chair of the Association of British Insurers, Chair of the Insurance Fraud Bureau and President of the Chartered Insurance Institute.
In 2022, Amanda was included in the Financial Times 25 most influential women of 2022 and in January 2023 named as The Sunday Times business person of the year. Download the article here.
Qualifications and responsibilities
Amanda is an Associate of the Chartered Insurance Institute and has an MBA from Leeds University. She also holds a BA (hons) in history from the University of Liverpool.
In 2020 Amanda led the Government’s independent review into flood insurance.
In 2021, she was appointed by HM Treasury to the role of Women in Finance Charter Champion and has worked with Bain & Company to design an industry-first blueprint with practical recommendations that organisations can use to boost representation across Financial Services.
In March 2024, Amanda was appointed to the UK National Wealth Fund Taskforce.
Amanda is also Co-Chair of the UK Transition Taskforce, which is developing a gold standard for private sector climate transition plans.
Amanda is the Senior Independent Director of BP plc, a company listed on the LSE, Frankfurt Stock Exchange and NYSE. Amanda is also a member of the BP plc Remuneration Committee and People and Governance Committee.
In December 2023, Amanda joined the Board of the Association of British Insurers.
In July 2024, Amanda received honorary degrees from the University of Liverpool and Buckinghamshire New University.
Amanda was awarded a Damehood in the King’s New Year Honours in January 2024.
Watch our Group CEO, Amanda Blanc's half year results 2024 video
Transcript for video Amanda Blanc's 2024 half year results video
Voiceover: For over 326 years, we’ve been supporting our customers with the most precious aspects of their lives.
More than 19.5 million people choose us to meet their insurance, wealth and retirement needs.
That’s because they know we’re with them today, for a better tomorrow.
Our strong results reflect the hard work of our 23,000 colleagues
Today we’ve announced an excellent set of half year results
£875m operating profit
Our capital position is strong at 205%
Premiums are up 15% in General Insurance
Sales are up 12% in IWR
And net flows are up 16% in Wealth.
These numbers demonstrate our accelerating momentum.
Helena: Welcome, Amanda. Thank you so much for inviting me here today to talk about our performance. So we're halfway through the financial year. So how are we performing?
Amanda: Well hello and Helena, it’s very, very nice to see you. Thank you very much for doing this. We really, really appreciate it. It's hard to believe, isn't it, that we are actually halfway through the year already, but in terms of how Aviva is performing, I think what today's numbers show is that we are continuing to demonstrate Aviva's accelerating momentum.
Amanda: We've got fantastic opportunities right across our markets, and we're executing on our strategy. And, you know, that strategy has been the same now for the last four years. Some of the key areas - we're growing right across our business and more importantly, we are accelerating in those capital light areas. We're more profitable. Operating profit and OFG are both up double digits.
Amanda: And yet, as I always say to the team, there's a lot more where that came from.
Helena: I love it. So you were mentioning there about growing the business and those capital light areas. Can you tell me a wee bit more about that?
Amanda: Yeah, of course. So hitting our plans would see us get close to 70% of our business in capital-light areas by 2026. And how we propose to do that is a combination of investing in those organic growth areas, but also targeted M&A. So if I break that down into the different areas. In Wealth, Doug, in the team have been cementing our number one position as the UK wealth player with 186 billion pounds of assets under management.
Amanda: And then Mark and the team in Aviva Investors are capturing 70% of the workplace flows, which I think demonstrates the real power of our connected wealth proposition. In Health premiums are up, and in Protection the integration of the AIG business puts us as the clear number one in the market. In General Insurance Jason and the team are delivering double digit growth across the business, which you will, of course, know very well.
Amanda: And particularly in the retail growth, which is, you know, I think exceptional. And we've expanded on our position in Commercial Lines. And over in Canada, Tracy and the team are growing through the opportunities to our RBC partnership, but also wins in Commercial Lines.
Helena: Wow. Loads and loads of examples there. So the recent acquisition of the Lloyd’s business, Probitas. Will that have a role to play here?
Amanda: Yeah I mean Probitas does play a role. The last time we stood up at results was the week that we had announced the Probitas deal. And what it does is it helps us to accelerate growth in our Global Corporate and Specialty business, which of course, you would be, super interested in. And what it means is that we're better positioned to serve our multinational clients. With access to Lloyd's we’ve more than doubled our distribution opportunity and it allows us to be a dual platform player. And of course, having strong presence either side of the Atlantic also makes a really big difference.
Helena: Absolutely. Very exciting times. So our focus has been on the customer and our results are really showing that. Do you have anything more to share with regards to what's happening in the customer space?
Amanda: Absolutely. In the UK, we're already operating at a similar scale to the leading banks and we're growing. So we have over 4.9 million individual customers with two or more Aviva policies. And more than 40% of our new sales are to existing individual customers. And we're building our loyalty by focusing on delivering the right outcomes for our customers and improving experience.
Amanda: So, for example, we're providing affordable insurance with the QuoteMeHappy Essentials range in the UK. We're helping people offset emissions with Aviva Zero. We've sold over 800,000 policies since we launched that two years ago. And we've recently refreshed our MyAviva app with seven million users. That's obviously very important to us.
Helena: Do you have anything more for people to take away today?
Amanda: Yes, I do. So we're often asked about how we've managed to deliver such consistent results like today. And of course, the answer is our fantastic people, the high performance culture and our ability to execute. So what I want to do is take a moment to just thank everyone at Aviva, not just for the performance, but also for their belief in what we are trying to do and their relentless focus on our customers.
Amanda: It's our 23,000 colleagues that help to keep us on track every single day.
Helena: Thanks so much for your time today, Amanda. Really appreciate the opportunity to ask you those questions.
Amanda: And thank you very much indeed.
Voiceover: Our strategy is clear. And it’s working.
We are delivering for our customers and shareholders, with Aviva colleagues at the very heart of our success.
We have so much to be proud of, thank you.
Aviva: With you today, for a better tomorrow.
Publications
10 June 2023: download Amanda's interview with The Times.
20 December 2022: read Amanda’s interview with The Daily Mail.
27 October 2021: read Amanda's comment on the budget in The Telegraph.
17 October 2021: read what Amanda has to say about Aviva’s increased investment in green assets and how we are using our influence to call for change and push for progress in the move to net zero, on the This is Money website.
September 2021: read Amanda's CEO Perspective on Get Nature Positive's website.
5 May 2021: read Amanda's interview with The CII Journal.
20 December 2020: read Amanda's interview with The Sunday Times (subscription required).
You can download a photograph of Amanda from Flickr.