Stephen Hester is a seasoned turnaround merchant. After dragging Royal Bank of Scotland from the wreckage of the financial crisis — the UK’s biggest-ever corporate restructuring at the time — he moved on to RSA in February 2014.
The FTSE 100 insurer was in a bad state after a string of profit warnings and an accounting scandal involving a £200m capital shortfall in its Irish business.
Hester, 59, slashed costs and pulled out of Latin America and other markets to focus on the UK, Canada and Scandinavia, with the latter considered the crown jewels of the business.
Rival insurer Zurich made a £5.6bn takeover bid in 2015, although it was abandoned after the Swiss giant warned about losses in its own business.
With the RSA