Aviva's Europe boss McMillan leaves as Briggs promoted to UK insurance chief

Aviva's European boss David McMillan has stepped down as the insurer reshuffled various director roles, with life chief Andy Briggs promoted to chief executive of a merged UK insurance business.

UK life insurance chief Andy Briggs, who joined the board in April 2015 following the acquisition of Friends Life, will now oversee all UK insurance businesses as Aviva merges its life and general insurance arms.

Alongside this, global general insurance chairman Maurice Tulloch has been promoted to CEO of the similarly merged international business, where he will be responsible for Aviva's life and general insurance operations in Canada, France, India, Ireland, Italy, Poland, Spain and Turkey.

Aviva Investors, Aviva Asia and the digital businesses will remain as separate entities, with their existing leadership.

Having firmed up the balance sheet, exited several overseas operations and increasingly focused on digital sales, which have combined to turn around the overall performance in the last three years, group chief executive Mark Wilson said Aviva was "entering a new phase in its transformation" by entering a growth phase.

"Our priorities are to continue to deepen our position in our home UK market with our 16m customers, and to continue to grow in our core international markets to diversify and strengthen Aviva. This puts us in a peer group of one," he said.

Helping investors feel more comfortable about the seeming direction of its succession plan, Aviva emphasised that Briggs has also been CEO of Scottish Widows, Lloyds' life business and Prudential's retirement income business, and as CEO of Friends Life led the transformation of three acquired businesses before "bringing his strategic and business skills, experience of organisational change and knowledge" to Aviva.