Round and round they go...

TREVOR Matthews was smiling as he hung up the phone after speaking to his two sons, aged 11 and 10, who were at home in Surrey.

Wheel of fortune: clockwise from bottom right, Toby Strauss, Trevor Matthews, Andy Briggs and Andrew Moss. Montage: Stewart Bremner

It was Wednesday night and they were delighted when he told them he would be taking a job with the insurance giant Aviva. "They sponsor the rugby, don't they?" asked one of his sport-mad boys. "Yes they do," replied Matthews, who is known as a sports fan himself.

But accepting the job as UK chief executive of Aviva, the UK's second largest insurer, meant putting off yet again plans to return to his native Australia. "You change your mind on things," he later joked.

In January, Matthews, 59, raised eyebrows when he said he was being kicked upstairs to become vice-chairman of Friends Life to make way for the younger Andy Briggs, who had been poached from Scottish Widows, to fill the chief executive role.

It later emerged there had been a rift between Matthews and Clive Cowdery, the founder behind the Resolution insurance consolidator which owns Friends, although the nature of the dispute isn't clear.

Looking back to Matthews' tenure at Standard Life, where he was chief executive of UK life and pensions, he was widely admired in the industry but perhaps not by the people that mattered most. He joined the Edinburgh firm in 2004 as it set off on its massive uphill demutualisation battle, bringing a sunny Australian charm to what was then one of the dourest of insurance companies.

Scott White, head of Scotland for City PR firm Broadgate Mainland and the former head of communications at Standard Life, credits his "inspirational" leadership at the time. "He inspired staff of all ages and all levels to believe. People worked hard for him and he returned that in spades."

But it became clear early on that although Matthews had won the hearts of staff, then chief executive Sandy Crombie had decided he would never be the material from which the head of Standard Life was made. Although Matthews had relocated to Edinburgh from Sydney with the top job in mind - he admitted as much in an interview in 2006 - it was also apparent he would take little lying down and was ruthless enough to make sudden moves. His departure to take over Friends Provident came only after vehement denials - to the press and to Standard Life chairman, Gerry Grimstone - that he was not leaving.

It is a question as to whether this stubborn streak eventually rubbed the men of Resolution up the wrong way. Matthews initially fought the takeover of Friends by Resolution and exacted a heavy price.

When his departure from the chief executive role at Friends was announced, Resolution let it be known that Matthews was being sidelined because of his oft-stated plan to return "down under" in the next three years and so wouldn't be around for when the company eventually made a stock market flotation. Initially, Matthews had planned to take his family back to Australia at the age of 60. But with Resolution, he seemed to extend this to the age of 62 or 63.

Was this a handy excuse to see him off? If it was, Matthews, didn't waste any time feeling sorry for himself. Within just a few months, his headhunters had identified the plummiest job in UK insurance - the one that was being abandoned by Mark Hodges at Aviva.

But the departure of Hodges for the venture capital-backed insurance intermediary, Towergate, set warning bells ringing among Aviva's investors. Although Matthews' appointment was widely welcomed, the UK's second biggest insurer seemed to be having some trouble keeping hold of its talent. Just weeks before, Toby Strauss, chief executive of Aviva's York-based UK life business, had jumped ship to Scottish Widows after only a year and a half in the role.

Before that, an even bigger fish jumped. Andrea Moneta, Aviva's head of Europe, who was widely viewed as a future leader of the group, left in February "by mutual consent". An Italian national, Moneta had joined Aviva in July 2008, replacing another rising star, Tidjane Thiam, who chose to take the top job at its rival Prudential.

Aviva is also taking a long time - unduly in the eyes of some - to find a new chairman. Lord Sharman of Redlynch, 68, who has been in the job since 2005 is set to leave after his term expires in 2013. Rumours that the firm would hire former Lloyds Banking Group chief executive Eric Daniels as a replacement were quashed in their infancy - a fate suffered by many former executives tainted by the banking crisis.

But if there is a theme tune to the game of musical chairs being played at the top of the insurance industry, its lyrics would most likely be about rejection by a lover. Briggs, who joined Friends, was not unlike Matthews in that it seemed clear he wasn't welcome to the role of chief executive of Scottish Widows. Under the most senior director of Lloyds' insurance division, Archie Kane, the job looked set to be handed instead to Phil Loney, who had been shifted into Briggs' job as head of life and pensions. But then Antnio Horta-Osrio, Lloyds' group chief executive, retired Kane and Loney decided to moved on to become chief executive of Royal London.

Strauss's move to Lloyds-owned Widows underlined the confidence - which has now been confirmed by insiders - that the insurance jewel would stay ensconced in the bank's crown rather than be sold off.

Horta-Osrio said Strauss's appointment, along with the promotion of Rosie Harris to become managing director of general insurance, would "build on the foundations that will enable us to deliver on our longer-term plans".

It also stabilised the uncertainty at the top after Briggs, presumably displeased with having been banished to the group's general insurance business in Newport, embraced Cowdery.

Marcus Barnard of Oriel Securities argues that so many changes in personnel "highlights the scarcity of talented executives within the insurance sector and the demand for them". He added, with particular reference to Aviva: "Few insurance companies seem prepared to take the risk of appointing internal candidates to senior roles."

Analysts said the ructions at Aviva gave "rise to some speculation about the group's long-term leadership". These would be in the shape of clouds gathering over the group's global chief executive, Andrew Moss.

Some suggest that Matthews is now in pole position to replace Moss, head of other internal contenders such as Igal Mayer, who replaced Moneta, and finance director, Pat Regan.

But some point to Matthews' age - six years older than Moss - and his desire to go back to Australia, making him more of a "stop gap" leader. Analysts say Matthews must win the trust of the board at Aviva and its investors that he will stay put for at least a few years if he is to be anything other than the UK chief executive.

Moss, who has been in the top job at the insurer since 2007, has his detractors but he also has some strong backers among the group's investors, as his reorganisation of the firm since the economic crisis has born fruit.

From 2009, Moss led a drastic change in Aviva's operations, pulling away from its previous expansion strategy that saw it sprawl to a 30-country empire. He has also reportedly put the firm's RAC roadside rescue business up for sale, which it bought in 2005 for 1.25 billion. But Moss has had well publicised issues with his personal life - the board had to confirm his job was safe in 2009 after it emerged he had been having an affair with an employee.

Now the group's shedding of top executives also looks like a problem at the top. The surprise departure of Hodges comes after some good results. Under his watch, the UK business was going well, reporting a 35 per cent rise in full-year profit before tax to 2.44bn. Last month, the company hailed the performance of its UK motor and household arm after the division secured 1bn in sales in the quarter, a 20 per cent rise that represented a fifth successive quarterly increase.

Hodges, who had been working at Aviva for 20 years, said the opportunity to lead Towergate and take it onto the public markets was "irresistible".

But not everyone was convinced and some in the Square Mile say it signalled a certain discontent - as if he too was snubbed from further promotion up the ranks and decided he would have to find the top job elsewhere.