In her resignation letter to the board of the Welsh Rugby Union in 2021, the Aviva chief executive, Amanda Blanc, pulled no punches. As she raised the alarm over entrenched sexism, she made one point clear to the remaining leadership: “You are sitting on a ticking timebomb.”
The belated publication of that private correspondence last month, as part of a wider, damning review, not only rocked the rugby world, but added to a growing list of shakeups across business and sport that share one thing in common: Blanc.
The 56-year-old, who hails from south Wales, has not only managed to turn around the insurance giant that she has led for three years, she has influenced some of the biggest changes in corporate Britain this year. As a non-executive board member of BP, she had a hand in the decision to dismiss its chief executive, Bernard Looney, this week for not declaring personal relationships, obliging him to forfeit £32m in pay and shares. Months earlier, her decision to cancel Aviva’s membership at the scandal-hit CBI created a domino effect, and nearly 100 firms followed suit.
Her firm stance against sexism and misconduct has put her at the forefront of a cultural shift that could have a lasting impact on corporate Britain. It has certainly changed her own organisation. Giving evidence this week to parliament’s sexism in the City inquiry, she revealed having ousted male staff found guilty of inappropriate behaviour against colleagues.
Born in 1967, Blanc grew up in the Rhondda Valley in the heart of mining country. The industry employed both her grandfathers, one of whom, Charlie, started work at the age of 13. He was so tired after his first day at the mine he had to be carried home, she told the BBC’s Desert Island Discs. The community was torn apart by the then prime minister Margaret Thatcher’s devastating war against striking workers. “That was incredibly difficult. People would be knocking on the door asking for food, donations for food, the community came together. But it broke this [place],” Blanc told the Financial Times last year.
But her family pressed on, and Blanc went on to study history at the University of Liverpool, then completed a masters in business at Leeds before launching her career at one of Aviva’s ancestor firms, Commercial Union, in 1989. She became its youngest branch manager at 29 years old.
She would eventually return to what would become Aviva, but not before cutting her teeth in other big roles across the otherwise male-dominated insurance industry. She notably served as the UK chief executive of Axa, and held top jobs at London’s Towergate Insurance Brokers and France’s Groupama Insurance Company.
Andrew Sibbald – the former chair of the investment bank Evercore International, who has advised Blanc at Aviva – first saw her in action at Towergate. “It was a presentation to a large group of insurance brokers; a mainly male audience, as has been the nature of that industry. But she absolutely commanded the room. She had everyone listening to her every word and paying attention, and taking heed. And I think that’s core to her leadership quality: she has authority, and people trust her judgment. And as a result, she knows she can carry the room.”
While she can be incredibly serious when it comes to business, Sibbald says she can still connect with people. “She is a real human being with high EQ [emotional intelligence quotient] who can relate to people from all walks of life. She can chat animatedly to a royal, all the way through to the guy in the corner shop, and make both of those people feel they’re engaged in a valuable conversation.”
Blanc also had a short stint as Zurich Insurance’s EMEA boss, but left after less than a year in the job. She has refused to go into detail, but reportedly failed to get on with chief executive, Mario Greco, saying only that the two were “just not aligned”. She would later reflect that the experience proved that “the culture of an organisation was really important to me”.
Bigger moves were on the horizon, though, and Blanc was appointed chief executive of Aviva as the Covid-19 pandemic gripped the world in July 2020. She quickly got to work, taking Aviva out of eight international markets and slimming down its operations to focus on the UK, Ireland and Canada, a move that helped return nearly £5bn to investors, including activist shareholder Cevian Capital, which pushed the insurer to speed up its reforms.
Analysts at JP Morgan have since credited her with transforming the insurer into a “highly investible company”, appeasing shareholders, who had seen the stock price halve in the three years preceding her appointment. Aviva’s share price has surged 65% to £4.33 since she joined.
Among her supporters is the former minister and Treasury committee chair Baroness Nicky Morgan, who approached Blanc in the summer of 2021 about taking the chair at the Association of British Insurers lobby group.
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“When I was approached about that role, Amanda very kindly offered me some advice. She made sure that she was supportive, and that counts for a lot,” Morgan said. “She builds up great relationships, but also she’s just good at business, she gets stuff done, and she calls things out. And of course some people will find that challenging, but I think that’s what you need in a chief executive.”
Despite Blanc’s success, she has faced sexism at Aviva, notably at the 2022 annual general meeting, when some small shareholders claimed she was “not the man for the job” and should be “wearing trousers”. Another praised women on the board for their skills at “basic housekeeping activities”.
Determined to improve conditions for women in finance, in 2021 she was appointed by the Treasury to serve as its women in finance charter champion. In email resigning from the Welsh Rugby Union board later that year, she cited that role: “I am the UK government’s women in finance champion – if I don’t call out problems whenever I see them, then that is a hollow appointment.”
A lifelong rugby fan, who as a girl would stand outside the stadium in Cardiff listening to the crowds singing, she showed palpable disappointment in the conduct of the governing body. In an excoriating farewell, she described being questioned by fellow directors about whether she had sufficient business experience, and condemned the handling of a bullying complaint, saying: “I sat in a car park for a one hour 20 minute board meeting deciding what to do – where the first hour and six minutes was listening to a discussion about how to defend the man at the centre of the allegations.”
All of which may explain why Aviva became the first FTSE 100 firm to publicly cancel its Confederation of British Industry (CBI) membership after allegations of rape and sexual harassment in April. Hundreds of big businesses followed, throwing the CBI’s future into question.
Blanc also notably was among the BP board members who decided to formally dismiss its chief executive, Bernard Looney, over “serious misconduct” relating to his disclosures and assurances about personal relationships with colleagues.
She told MPs on Wednesday that Aviva itself had sacked male employees for inappropriate behaviour towards female staff, and made efforts to ensure that the careers of those who blew the whistle did not suffer. She also explained how she was making efforts to diversify its workforce. “There is no non-diverse hire at Aviva without it being signed off by me and the chief people officer,” she told the Treasury committee.
Still, the chief executive – who has two daughters and lives with her husband in Buckinghamshire – has consistently played down her activism. She said last year: “I don’t want this to become my cause célèbre. I want to be judged by the Aviva results, what I achieve … However, the other thing I’ve realised as I’ve moved into different roles is, you have a duty. You have a responsibility. With senior positions comes a responsibility to be able to call out.”
