Aviva hires Great Eastern chief executive

Aviva has appointed Chris Wei, the former chief executive officer (CEO) of Great Eastern, to oversee the company’s life-insurance business.

Wei was named CEO of global life insurance as well as chairman of Asia, and will take up the new roles in October 2014.

Aviva said the key strategic priorities for Wei will be ensuring the continued success of Aviva's UK life insurance business, which is a significant contributor to the group's profitability, and also driving the future growth of Aviva’s Asian operations.

From 2011 to 2014, Wei was CEO of Great Eastern, the listed Asian life insurer. Under his tenure, Great Eastern’s new business measure of total weighted new sales crossed the S$1 billion mark for the first time in 2013.

Prior to Great Eastern, from 2008 to 2011 Wei was a member of the group executive committee of AIA, the pan-Asian life insurance group and was an integral part of the leadership team that achieved AIA’s successful listing in Hong Kong.

He was also CEO of AIG United Guaranty Insurance in Hong Kong (2004-2008) and from 1993 to 2004 he held various leadership positions in the Canadian insurance market with Allstate and ING Canada.

Mark Wilson, group CEO, said: “I am delighted that Chris is joining Aviva. Chris brings an outstanding track record and has the strategic and financial acumen to make a difference to our life insurance businesses. Chris’s appointment demonstrates the extent of our ambition for our life insurance operations.

“Chris joins a team of exceptional people leading our main business lines. Having the best management team in the sector is a prerequisite for Aviva’s successful turnaround and out-performance.”

Wei added: “This is a superb opportunity. The progress Aviva has made in the last year has been striking. I cannot imagine a more exciting time to be joining this vibrant and ambitious company.

“With Aviva’s exceptional history and strong life insurance franchises around the world, we have the building blocks to take the business to the next level. Aviva will succeed by a passionate focus on our customers, putting them at the heart of all we do. Our success will hinge on our ability to understand and adapt to customers’ changing needs and to focus on delighting our customers every day with great products and services across Aviva.”