When Dame Amanda Blanc joined BP's board as a non-executive director in September 2022, the appointment looked like a natural extension of her influence. The chief executive of Aviva, already co-chair of the UK Transition Plan Taskforce and a member of the Prime Minister's Business Council, was adding another platform from which to shape corporate Britain's approach to energy transition. BP's then-chairman Helge Lund said she had "deep connections throughout the UK's business and investment communities" and a "strong interest in the energy transition." It was, in short, precisely the sort of appointment that burnishes a modern CEO's credentials.
Three and a half years on, that same role has become the most uncomfortable item on her agenda. BP's chairman Albert Manifold - whose appointment Blanc herself led less than a year ago - was abruptly removed on 26 May amid "serious concerns" about governance, oversight and conduct. Blanc delivered the public statement that ended his tenure. She is now leading the search for his replacement, while Manifold, who has hired law firm Mishcon de Reya, is reportedly considering legal action. As one shareholder told the Irish Times: "This farrago does not fill one with confidence about the governance of BP."
For the insurance industry, the more pointed question is what it reveals about the structural risks of senior executive NED appointments - particularly the role of senior independent director, which carries real legal and governance weight and cannot simply be delegated when things go wrong.
There is an important distinction that much of the coverage of this story has glossed over. Blanc is not simply one voice on BP's board. As senior independent director, she is the person shareholders turn to when they cannot, or will not, go through the chair. She led both the search that appointed Manifold and the process that removed him. She is the named public face of the board's actions. In a crisis of this nature - protracted, litigious and reputationally damaging - that role carries obligations that go well beyond attending a few meetings a year.
"It's all fine when it's a few interesting meetings a year until it's not - and suddenly you're being asked to do a lot more."- Senior investor at a major Aviva shareholder, speaking to The Times, 15 June 2026
Two of Aviva's own major shareholders have now told The Times they intend to raise the matter with Blanc directly. Their concern is not her six-year record at Aviva, which both appear to regard as exemplary - the insurer has delivered capital returns of more than £11 billion since 2020 and Blanc achieved her financial targets a year ahead of schedule - but the bandwidth the BP situation is consuming at a moment when Aviva has its own significant demands on leadership attention.
Aviva is mid-way through integrating Direct Line, the motor insurer it acquired for £3.7 billion in July 2025. Blanc has committed to delivering £225 million in cost synergies - nearly double the original estimate - alongside at least £500 million of capital synergies, with the full run-rate expected by 2028. The integration is proceeding well by all public accounts, but it is the kind of complex, multi-year undertaking that demands consistent executive focus. It also follows the PRA's £10.6 million fine of Direct Line's underwriting subsidiary in March for overstating its solvency position - an inherited problem, but one that added regulatory scrutiny to an already busy corporate agenda.
BP's governance crisis is unusual in its severity, but the underlying dynamic is not. Insurance CEOs are among the most sought-after candidates for external NED roles precisely because they bring risk management expertise, regulatory fluency and cross-sector credibility. The FCA and PRA's own senior manager rules require firms to assess whether their executives have sufficient time to fulfil their primary roles - but those assessments are made at appointment, not in the middle of a corporate emergency at another company.
What the BP episode illustrates, with unusual clarity, is that the senior independent director role in particular can morph into something qualitatively different from a standard non-executive appointment during a boardroom crisis. For any insurance executive currently holding such a role at a FTSE 100 company - or considering one - it is a timely reminder that the question to ask is not just whether you have time for the good days, but whether you can absorb the bad ones too.
