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In Good Company with Nicolai Tangen

HIGHLIGHTS: Dame Amanda Blanc - CEO of Aviva

In Good Company with Nicolai Tangen

Norges Bank Investment Management

In Good Company, Business, Norges Bank, Nicolai Tangen

4.8 • 186 Ratings

🗓️ 31 October 2025

⏱️ 11 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

We've curated a special 10-minute version of the podcast for those in a hurry.  

 

Here you can listen to the full episode: https://podcasts.apple.com/no/podcast/aviva-ceo-transforming-insurance-navigating-climate/id1614211565?i=1000733980682&l=nb


In this episode of In Good Company, Nicolai Tangen sits down with Dame Amanda Blanc, CEO of Aviva, Britain's largest insurer, to unpack a remarkable corporate turnaround. Since becoming CEO during the pandemic, Amanda has refocused Aviva's portfolio, sold off non-core businesses, and made the landmark acquisition of Direct Line. She explains how AI is reshaping insurance, why climate change is a defining challenge for the industry, and what it takes to restore investor confidence after years of challenges. Beyond business, Amanda shares her views on leadership, execution, and building resilience, as well as her advocacy for gender balance in finance. From growing up in the Rhondda Valley of South Wales to being appointed a Dame and leading Britain's largest insurer, her story is one of decisive leadership and determination. Tune in for an insightful conversation!

 

In Good Company is hosted by Nicolai Tangen, CEO of Norges Bank Investment Management. New full episodes every Wednesday, and don't miss our Highlight episodes every Friday. 

 

The production team for this episode includes Isabelle Karlsson and PLAN-B's Niklas Figenschau Johansen, Sebastian Langvik-Hansen and Pål Huuse. Background research was conducted by Une Solheim.

 


Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Transcript

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0:00.0

Hi, everybody. Tune in to this short version of the podcast, which we do every Friday for the long version.

0:06.6

Tune in on Wednesdays.

0:09.4

Hi, everybody. I'm Nicola Tangen, the CEO of the Norwegian Soverealth Fund. And today, we are in really good company with Amanda Blanc, the CEO of Britain's leading insurance company, Aviva.

0:26.6

Now, this is the kind of company that insures your home, your car, and helps you save for retirement. They serve 25 million people globally and 21 million people in the UK alone.

0:32.6

Amanda took over in July 2020 and has led what is described as a complete transformation,

0:39.4

and we're going to hear all about it.

0:41.8

So Amanda, wonderful to have you on the podcast.

0:45.2

Now, thanks, Nikolai.

0:46.2

Really, really great to see you.

0:47.6

Just briefly before we start, what does Aviva actually do in short?

0:52.1

Oh, right, in short.

0:53.0

Well, I mean, basically it protects people,

0:55.8

it protects businesses from bad things that can happen. And also it looks after people in their

1:02.0

hour of need and when they want to do things like retire. So, you know, we say with you today

1:08.3

for a better tomorrow, that's our purpose. And I suppose that encapsulates everything that we do. Now, you're both an insurer and a major investor. How, could you explain that dual role? Yeah. So obviously, as an insurer, we have a big balance sheet, so over 400 billion pounds. And so we need to put those assets to really,

1:28.6

really good use. And we do that via investing. We're a big investor in the UK. So, you know,

1:33.8

we're a big believer in the UK. So we invest in UK infrastructure and UK guilt. I mean,

1:39.0

also in private assets. But we also invest in corporate debt and in other things. So I think it's about getting the

1:45.5

best return over a very long period for our shareholders and obviously also for our customers.

1:52.2

Now, you and I, we've been in the jobs for pretty much exactly the same time, five years.

1:56.8

Now, you've totally transformed Aviva. What are the key decisions that you have made?

2:02.1

So I think the key decisions came with actually within the first month. So I was in a fortunate

...

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