Simon Machell is new Aviva Asia-Pacific CEO

Aviva, the international savings, investments and insurance group, today announced the appointment of Simon Machell as the chief executive for Asia Pacific region.

This follows the company's recent announcement to divide its operations into four regions to reflect the increasingly multi-national nature its business.

The Asia-Pacific region of the company includes Australia, China, India, Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia,Taiwan and the West Asia.

In his new role, Simon, who is also a member of the group executive committee, will be reporting to Andrew Moss, group chief executive.

"Simon has a great track record in the Aviva group. This puts him in positions to lead the Asia-Pacific business, which the company see as an increasingly significant part of the Aviva group," said Andrew Moss.

Simon had worked with Norwich Union Insurance (NUI), where he was chief executive, before taking the role to lead Aviva's Asia-Pacific businesses. NUI is the UK's largest general insurance business with a premium of approximately £6 billion and nearly 22,000 staff.

Aviva is the leading provider of life and pensions in Europe with substantial positions in other markets around the world, making it the world's fifth largest insurance group based on gross worldwide premiums on December 31, 2006.

Aviva sells its products and services via a multi-distribution model including direct sales force, brokers, independent financial advisers and bancassurance.

The insurance major's principal business activities include long-term savings, fund management and general insurance, with worldwide total sales of £41.5 billion and assets under management of £364 billion on December 31, 2006.