Moss can profit from a financial upturn

EVER since news erupted some four months ago of his extra-marital affair with a junior member of staff, Andrew Moss has steadfastly maintained that his private life has never impinged upon his job as chief executive of Aviva.

Tomorrow will present him with another opportunity to reinforce his credentials as head of the world's fifth-biggest insurer.

The FTSE 100 group, which operates in 28 countries serving an estimated 50 million customers, is expected to report a return to profitability when it announces its full-year results for 2009. It will represent a substantial recovery for the company, which took a battering along with the rest of the insurance industry as global financial markets collapsed in 2008.

Investors will probably focus on what Aviva plans to do with its relatively healthy cash pile, and will also question how prepared the group is for the forthcoming "Solvency II" regime, which is expected to require higher capital requirements for some parts of the European insurance industry. They will also be looking for further signs of a revival in sales growth.

Moss has already hinted that the worst may be behind for Aviva. In a recent trading update, Moss revealed a recovery in sales of life assurance, pensions and general insurance products for the fourth quarter.

"All of my gut instincts tell me that the third quarter of last year may be the low point in this economic cycle in terms of life sales," Moss said.

However, he added a cautious note, warning that economic growth in western Europe was "still going to be sluggish".

Whatever the figures may reveal, the intensely private Moss will no doubt be most comfortable as long as discussions don't stray from the realm of business.

The chief executive has worked hard to distance himself from talk about his personal life, which has of late proven far more scintillating than the comparatively mundane machinations of the insurance industry.

Moss, 51, was forced to admit in October of last year that he was in a personal relationship with Deidre Galvin, a member of Aviva's human resources department. Galvin, in turn, was married to Andrew Moffat, head of human resources for Aviva in Europe.

News of the so-called "Aviva triangle" led Moss to leave his wife of 25 years, Susan. He moved out of the family's million-pound plus home in the picturesque Kent village of Matland, near Tunbridge Wells, where his four adult children lived. He moved in with Galvin to his luxury apartment in Wapping, East London.

Galvin, whose union with Moffat was her second marriage, resigned from Aviva as a result of these developments. The 45-year-old's own four children have reportedly lived with their father, Galvin's first husband, since that marriage broke up.

A former rugby player and continuing fitness fanatic, Moss took the flak resulting from these headlines head-on. After the news broke, he insisted repeatedly that his office affair was an entirely "private matter" that had no bearing on his ability to do his job.

"It's a private matter and as far as I'm concerned it doesn't impinge on the job that I do at Aviva at all," he told one publication in the week after the news came out.

"I'm 100 per cent committed to managing the company."

His position was bolstered by Lord Sharman of Redlynch, Aviva's chairman, who immediately threw his full weight behind his chief executive. Though some investors in the company initially called upon Lord Sharman to "stamp his authority" upon the tawdry situation, Aviva's board resisted any pressure to mount a charm offensive.

"Andrew has been very open with me and I am clear that there has been no breach of company rules," Lord Sharman said in a statement on 21 October.

"I am completely satisfied that this has in no way impacted his role as chief executive, and he retains my full confidence."

Indeed, City insiders have commented upon the irony of the situation, given that rumours abound about the bedroom activities of many FTSE 100 chiefs.

There has been no suggestion that Moss will leave his post – which paid 2.2m last year – as a result of the affair.

This will leave the way clear for Moss to see through his five-year restructuring plan for Aviva, which he launched in 2007.

To date, this has included the re-branding of Norwich Union in the UK, the flotation of loss-making Dutch unit Delta Lloyd, and the sale of Aviva's Australian life business.

The latter two helped Aviva boost its solvency surplus – a measure of balance sheet strength – to 4.5bn at the end of 2009, up from 2bn a year earlier.

Moss will be keen to further build upon these positive messages, thus putting more distance between his corporate persona and his private life.

"We start 2010 in a strong position," he said last month.

"Our focus remains on growing our business profitably and improving our operational efficiency so that we can fully benefit as our major markets return to economic growth."

LAW, LLOYD'S AND LOVE AFFAIR…

THE son of a Hampshire solicitor, Andrew Moss was born in March 1958. He holds a degree in law from Christ Church, Oxford, and it was while studying there that he met his now estranged wife, Susan. The two were married for 25 years before splitting in October 2009 amid revelations that the chief executive of Aviva was having an affair with a colleague, Deidre Galvin, who at that time was married to another senior manager at Aviva.

The headline-grabbing story of the so-called "Aviva triangle" has been a rare period of controversy in what has otherwise been a relatively smooth career path for Moss.

Despite graduating with a law degree, he quickly realised that he preferred the world of commerce, and joined Coopers & Lybrand where he trained as a chartered accountant.

He then shifted into the banking sector, where he spent 12 years working first for Citibank and then Midland Bank. Following HSBC's acquisition of Midland in 1992, Moss remained with the merged institution, ending up as chief finance officer for its investment banking arm.

A further career change took him to Lloyd's of London, where he took the post of finance director in 2000. During the aftermath of the September 11 terrorist attacks of 2001 – which nearly brought Lloyd's of London to its knees – Moss replaced the insurance group's anachronistic three-year delayed accounting with an annual reporting system.

He joined Aviva in May 2004 as group finance director and was promoted to chief executive three years later at the age of 49.

Outside work, Moss's interests include golf, rugby and gardening. He has four children, two sons and two daughters.