TOBY Strauss, the chief operating officer of Aviva’s York-based UK Life, has been appointed its chief executive from January, in charge of a staff of about 3,000 in the city.

It is part of a general re-organisation by the insurance giant’s top executives which has seen Mark Hodges, the former UK life boss, rise to the top of the organisation as supremo of both Aviva’s life insurance and long-term savings business based in York and the Plc’s general insurance arm in the UK.

As UK chief executive, Mr Hodges will oversee plans to bring both aspects closer together.

Mr Strauss joined Aviva, formerly Norwich Union Life, in March 2008 as managing director of lifetime. Nine months later he was promoted to chief operating officer responsible for “customer experience” and the company’s joint venture with the Royal Bank of Scotland plus its outsourcing partnership with Swiss Re. His earlier career included working for IBM and McKinsey. He created and launched Charcol Online, the first online mortgage broker in the UK, and then went on to lead the acquisition of John Scott & Partners, now Towry Law). In recent years he founded OrderWork, an IT services company of which he remains executive chairman.

Married with two children, he enjoys sailing – he has sailed to the Caribbean and back - as well as cycling and playing the guitar in a classic ensemble.

Other Aviva announcements included the appointment of David McMillan, the chief operating officer of UK general insurance to be its chief executive; Cathryn Riley, chief operating and information officer for Aviva’s European business, to be the new UK commercial director; and Craig Thornton, managing director of Swiss Re’s UK life and health reinsurance business, to be the new UK chief risk officer responsible for leading the risk management and governance agenda.