Dame Amanda Blanc

Dame Amanda Blanc is Senior Independent Director at BP, appointed to the board as a non-executive director in September 2022 and elevated to senior independent director in 2024. She has been Group Chief Executive Officer of Aviva plc since July 2020, born on 8 August 1967, and was awarded a Damehood in the King's New Year Honours in January 2024 and named Sunday Times Business Person of the Year in 2023.

Blanc studied Modern History at the University of Liverpool and earned an MBA from the University of Leeds. She was born and bred in Wales, having grown up in the Rhondda Valley, and started her career as a graduate at Commercial Union, one of Aviva's ancestor companies.

Career History

• Group Chief Executive Officer, Aviva plc (July 2020–present)
• Previously Group CEO at AXA UK, PPP & Ireland
• CEO Europe, Middle East, Africa & Global Banking at Zurich Insurance Group
• Executive leadership positions at Towergate Insurance Brokers and Groupama Insurance Company

Blanc brings wide-ranging board experience and has previously been Chair of the Association of British Insurers. She is a member of the UK Government's British Infrastructure Taskforce and has greatly simplified Aviva, successfully divesting eight non-core businesses. She has served as President of the Chartered Insurance Institute and Chair of the Insurance Fraud Bureau. Blanc was named one of the Financial Times' 25 most influential women in 2022 and recognised in Forbes' World's 100 Most Powerful Women list.

What Dame Amanda Blanc could bring to her role as Senior Independent Director at BP: Her extensive experience transforming large financial services enterprises, combined with deep expertise in climate transition strategy through her co-chairmanship of the UK Transition Taskforce, positions her uniquely to provide governance oversight at a major energy company navigating the energy transition. Her leadership of the insurance industry's response to climate risk and her advocacy for diversity in corporate leadership bring both strategic insight and stakeholder credibility to BP's board during a period of significant corporate transformation.