Judge me on results, says Aviva chief

AVIVA’S chief executive has told detractors to judge her on performance and not on what she wears, after she suffered a raft of sexist abuse at the company’s annual meeting last week.

Amanda Blanc told The Daily Telegraph that she wants “results to be the focus of attention rather than being judged on whether I wear trousers”, adding that she has received thousands of messages of support since the incident. The FTSE 100 chief ’s comments came after three small investors made “simply inappropriate” remarks at Aviva’s annual meeting last Monday.

One individual investor said that Ms Blanc is “not the man for the job”, while another asked whether she should be “wearing trousers” as he mentioned some of her male predecessors. Ms Blanc said she addressed the issue in an internal Aviva town hall meeting last week when employees expressed their disgust at the comments.

Aviva said it was on track to return more cash to shareholders as insurance sales rose 5pc in the first quarter of the year.

It added that a total capital return to shareholders of £4.75bn will be complete by the end of the month.

Shares rose 2pc to 414p.