Aviva has announced more changes at the top as John McFarlane prepares to become chairman of the business, which employs almost 3,000 people in York.

Mr McFarlane will become a non-executive director, then deputy chairman before taking over from Lord Sharman of Redlynch at the end of June next year. Mr McFarlane, who will move to the UK from Australia, is currently a non-executive director of Royal Bank of Scotland Group, from which he will step down in March 2012, as well as Australian shopping centre developer Westfield Holdings.

He has also been chief executive officer of Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Limited for ten years, executive director at Standard Chartered and head of Citibank in the UK and Ireland.

He said: “I am delighted to be joining Aviva in such an important role. Aviva is a great company and an excellent brand and recent results show that the hard work over the last few years is paying off. I’ve been impressed with the people I have met and look forward to working with them. Aviva has a very promising future and I will be pleased to contribute to its ongoing success.”

The announcement comes shortly after Aviva’s chief executive, Mark Hodges, resigned to become chief executive of Towergate Insurance. He will be replaced by Aviva board member Trevor Matthews.

In York, David Barral was promoted from chief operating officer to chief executive of Aviva Life, after outgoing chief executive Toby Strauss left to take up a new role with Lloyds Banking Group.