Aviva has appointed Amanda Blanc as chief executive on a £1m basic salary to take over from Maurice Tulloch who is stepping down for family reasons after 14 months.

Ms Blanc has been a non-executive director of Aviva since January and chairs the Customer, Conduct and Reputation Board Committee.

She was previously chief executive EMEA & Global Banking Partnerships at Zurich and was formerly group CEO, AXA UK, PPP and Ireland. She has also served as chair of the Association of British Insurers and President of the Chartered Insurance Institute.

Ms Blanc will receive a basic annual salary of £1m and will be eligible for an annual bonus scheme which could add up to 200% of salary. However, any annual bonus payment will not be considered for 2020 until dividend payments are restarted for ordinary shareholders.

She will also be eligible for a long term incentive bonus of 300% of basic salary after three years if financial and shareholder return targets are met. She will receive a pension allowance of 14% of salary plus other executive benefits including initial accommodation assistance. 

Aviva says Mr Tulloch is stepping down for “family health reasons” after taking over from Andy Briggs in April last year. He will also leave the Aviva board.

He has been placed on gardening leave for six months from today and will assist Ms Blanc with the handover during this period. Mr Tulluch joined Aviva in 1992 and held a number of senior roles, joining the Aviva board in 2017 and appointed chief executive in March last year, taking over in April.

During his time as CEO Mr Tulloch announced a major restructuring with the group being streamlined into five divisions and both substantial investment and cost cutting between now and 2022.

In June last year Aviva announced plans to cut costs by £300m annually by 2022 with 1,800 jobs to be axed over the next three years from a total workforce of 30,000. The firms expects most redundancies to be made through natural turnover of staff. The company expects £60m of savings this year and £150m in 2020.

The new Investments, Savings and Retirement business, which includes Aviva Investors and has £346bn under management, is one of the largest divisions in the group and is run by Euan Munro.

George Culmer, chairman of Aviva, said: "I would like to thank Maurice for his valuable contribution over many years with Aviva.  The board and I were saddened to hear of the personal reasons behind his desire to step down and we wish him and his family the very best for the future.

"We are delighted that Amanda will be our new CEO. The board was unanimous in endorsing her appointment. I know she will bring real dynamism to Aviva and re-establish our credentials as a high-performing, innovative and customer-centric business."

Amanda Blanc, chief executive of Aviva, said: "Aviva is a great company, full of great people, and I'm honoured to be given the opportunity to help shape its future.  I want Aviva to be the leader in our industry again and the first choice for our customers and partners. My focus will be on achieving that for the benefit of all of our stakeholders.

"We will look at all our strategic opportunities, and at pace. I have been on the Aviva board since the start of this year and have a good understanding of where the business has its strengths and what actions we should take across our portfolio."

Following her appointment, she will step down from all current non-executive commitments but will continue in her voluntary role as chair of the Welsh Professional Rugby Board.