Hunt quits Standard Life to head up Prudential UK

Jackie Hunt will take up a top role at Prudential. Picture: Contributed

Hunt left the Edinburgh-based group “with immediate effect” yesterday morning to take up the soon-to-be-vacated role of chief executive of Prudential UK and Europe, becoming the first female to hold such a position at the 165-year-old firm.

Prudential’s current UK boss, Rob Devey, is stepping down at the end of October to “pursue new opportunities”.

Hunt’s decision is seen as an astute career move, even though the low-growth UK market is no longer regarded as the Pru’s most important business. It is Hunt’s first crack at a chief executive post, with some suggesting that she could ultimately succeed Tidjane Thiam as group chief executive.

The announcement surprised many, however, as Hunt had taken the lead just two days earlier in presenting a strong set of first-quarter results from Standard Life.

On the day, she was the main spokesperson in separate conference calls with analysts and later the media. Eamonn Flanagan, an insurance analyst with Shore Capital, noted that this gained her a substantial amount of publicity in the wake of the company’s results.

“If it was known that she was leaving, I don’t think [Standard Life] would have given her such a high profile,” Flanagan said. “Obviously she has been working on this for a while, but it comes as an absolute shocker for just about everyone else.”

Hunt, 44, is leaving a job that paid her £2.5 million in salary and bonuses last year. Her salary at Prudential will be a relatively modest £625,000, though bonuses could be worth up to 160 per cent of basic pay.

Hunt is highly regarded for instilling discipline and control during her time at Standard Life, delivering cash generation and a focus on profitability. Her departure is seen as a blow to the Lothian Road-headquartered insurer, though Marcus Barnard of Oriel Securities expects a suitable replacement to be found.

“It is probably a disappointment, but it is not an insurmountable problem,” he said.

Standard Life expects it to take up to nine months to find a replacement. In the meantime, existing members of the finance team will report directly to chief executive David Nish and other members of the Standard Life board.

Legal & General – whose insurance and asset management operations closely mirror those of Standard Life – is nearly a year into its search for a finance boss following former chief financial officer Nigel Wilson’s promotion to chief executive. The post has been handled in the interim by Wadham Downing, who is ultimately expected to take a strategy role within the group.

Prudential has more than seven million customers in the UK, and although this market is lower growth than others where the group operates, the UK business has been resilient amid regulatory changes and an adverse economic climate.

The UK generated about 24 per cent of Prudential’s operating profits last year, with revenues growing by 3 per cent. This compared to growth of 30 per cent in Asia and 48 per cent in the US.

Hunt joined Standard Life in January 2009, and became CFO in May 2010. Prior to that, she held a number of senior management roles, first at Royal & Sun Alliance and then at Aviva.

She is a non-executive director at transport group National Express and a board member at the Association of British Insurers.