New Aegon chief tells scaled down executive team to 'up the pace'

AEGON UK's new chief operating officer Adrian Grace yesterday told his top team they needed to "up the pace" of delivery following the departure of two senior executives.

Grace gathered 20 senior managers together for a briefing on chief executive Otto Thoresen's new vision for the life and pensions provider.

Feilim Mackle, director of life and pensions, and Steve Clode, director of marketing, were axed on Wednesday as part of a management reshuffle driven by Thoresen's decision to restructure.

Grace, who joined the company in January last year, has been given the first of two COO roles that Thoresen hopes will lead a simplified organisation.

The changes were announced as the group revealed that its life and pensions business for the year fell by 23 per cent to 943 million and the group booked a 183m impairment charge due to its investments in corporate bonds.

According to sources, Thoresen wants to "up the pace of delivery" so that the company was "better, bolder and faster" than its competitors.

Grace, who has a record of leading and building business change in a variety of industries such as Sage, the software company, and Barclays insurance, has called for better and clearer decision making among staff.

While Aegon UK is a division of Aegon NV based in The Hague in the Netherlands, sources say Thoresen was not following orders from above.

However, the group has been under pressure. During the quarter it repaid 1 billion (883m) it received in bailout money from the Dutch government.