Mark Andrew Wilson (born 22 August 1966) is a

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

businessman, who was appointed the chief executive officer (CEO) of Aviva on 1 January 2013. He stood down from his position on 9 October 2018.

Early life and education

Wilson grew up in Rotorua, New Zealand and was educated at the

University of Waikato , mottoeng = For The People , established = 1964; years ago , endowment = (31 December 2021) , budget = NZD $263.6 million (31 December 2020) , chancellor = Sir Anand Satyanand, GNZM, QSO, KStJ , vice_chancellor = Neil Quigley , cit ...

Career

Wilson joined National Mutual, an insurance business based in New Zealand in 1987, and progressed through the management structure. He became chief executive of AXA Southeast Asia in 2001, chief executive of AXA Hong Kong in 2003 and chief executive of AIA in March 2009. He went on to become chief executive officer (CEO) of Aviva on 1 January 2013. In March 2018, Wilson was appointed as a non-executive director of

BlackRock BlackRock, Inc. is an American multi-national investment company based in New York City. Founded in 1988, initially as a risk management and fixed income institutional asset manager, BlackRock is the world's largest asset manager, with trill ...

. Wilson was named in the 2016

Debrett's Debrett's () is a British professional coaching company, publisher and authority on etiquette and behaviour, founded in 1769 with the publication of the first edition of ''The New Peerage''. The company takes its name from its founder, John De ...

list of Britain's 500 most influential people, a group of individuals who have influenced or made a difference to British society. He was included in that year's list for his role in returning the British insurer to profit and finalising the £5.6bn acquisition of Friends Life, the largest takeover in the insurance sector in nearly 15 years. The merger turned Aviva into one of the UK's largest investors, managing £300bn-plus in assets. In 2016 Wilson was ranked 12th in Bloomberg's evaluation of the world's best value CEOs. Bloomberg looked at the pay-for-performance ratio of 100 CEOs at some of the largest companies around the world to see which companies are getting the best value from their CEO. Wilson was listed in the 2016 Debrett's 500 List as one Britain's most influential people in finance for returning the insurance multinational to profit and overseeing the Friends Life acquisition.

Business experience

Wilson was credited with steering AIA through the financial crisis – a period that saw parent company

AIG American International Group, Inc. (AIG) is an American multinational finance and insurance corporation with operations in more than 80 countries and jurisdictions. , AIG companies employed 49,600 people.https://www.aig.com/content/dam/aig/amer ...

bailed out by the US government. He prepared AIA for its flotation on the stock market in Hong Kong in 2010, increasing the company's value to $36bn at the time of listing. He has continued his turnaround work at Aviva, which had run into difficulty at the point of his arrival. Wilson refocused its life and general insurance businesses and bolstered its balance sheet. Under Wilson's leadership, Moody's upgraded Aviva Plc's senior unsecured debt rating to A2 from A3 and Aviva Plc's commercial paper rating to P-1 from P-2. Having turned around Aviva's performance, he is now looking to transform Aviva into a fintech firm. Opening 'Digital Garages', setting up a new insurance digital business in Hong Kong with Chinese internet company

Tencent Tencent Holdings Ltd. () is a Chinese multinational technology and entertainment conglomerate and holding company headquartered in Shenzhen. It is one of the highest grossing multimedia companies in the world based on revenue. It is also the wo ...

and private equity firm

Hillhouse Capital Hillhouse Investment is a global private equity firm with an East Asian heritage. Hillhouse was founded by Lei Zhang in 2005 with initial seed capital from the Yale University endowment and invests across East Asia, Southeast Asia, North Ame ...

, the MyAviva digital hub and Aviva's investment in its own digital transformation are all indicators of Wilson's effectiveness in achieving this aim.

Social purpose

On 25 September 2015 Wilson joined 193 world leaders to commit to the Sustainable Development Goals at the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmoniz ...

in New York. In a rare opportunity for a private sector CEO, Wilson addressed a

UN General Assembly The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA or GA; french: link=no, Assemblée générale, AG) is one of the six principal organs of the United Nations (UN), serving as the main deliberative, policymaking, and representative organ of the UN. Cur ...

plenary session on behalf of the global business community, calling for business and governments to work together to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. He was also a leader in setting up the World Benchmarking Alliance, a set of league tables scoring companies against their sector peers on their responses to major sustainability issues. Wilson stated his aim as being to “turn the SDGs into a corporate competitive sport”. He is also a member of the EAT Foundation advisory board, which he joined in June 2017. The Foundation’s ambition is to reform the global food system so that it is sustainable and supports a growing global population with healthy food from a healthy planet. Wilson has written about various social issues including putting the brakes on fraudulent insurance claims, and ensuring everyone plays their part to keep the flood threat at bay. Wilson is a chairman of the Geneva Association, the international think-tank of the insurance industry. He is a member of the development board of

the Royal Foundation The Royal Foundation of The Prince and Princess of Wales is a charity which supports the work of the Prince and Princess of Wales. Their projects revolve around conservation, the early years, mental health, and the emergency services. History ...

for the

Duke Duke is a male title either of a monarch ruling over a duchy, or of a member of royalty, or nobility. As rulers, dukes are ranked below emperors, kings, grand princes, grand dukes, and sovereign princes. As royalty or nobility, they are rank ...

and

Duchess of Cambridge Duke of Cambridge, one of several current royal dukedoms in the United Kingdom , is a hereditary title of specific rank of nobility in the British royal family. The title (named after the city of Cambridge in England) is heritable by male de ...

and the

and Duchess of Sussex. He stepped down from his position as CEO of Aviva on 9 October 2018.

Awards

Wilson received a distinguished alumni award from

Waikato University , mottoeng = For The People , established = 1964; years ago , endowment = (31 December 2021) , budget = NZD $263.6 million (31 December 2020) , chancellor = Sir Anand Satyanand, GNZM, QSO, KStJ , vice_chancellor = Neil Quigley , city ...

in 2017.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wilson, Mark New Zealand chief executives 1966 births Living people University of Waikato alumni Aviva people