Aviva's Amanda Blanc and AJ Bell co-founder Andrew Bell have been awarded CBEs in the King’s New Year Honours List.
The 56-year-old CEO of Aviva becomes a dame commander, cited for services to gender equality and to net zero as well as business.
Blanc’s three years at the helm of the insurer, after having previously led Axa, has seen the share price rise.
Her interventions elsewhere have been perhaps even more notable: from being the first FTSE 100 firm to publicly withdraw from the CBI after allegations of sexual offences and being an instrumental part of the BP board who recently ousted the disgraced boss Bernard Looney.
Blanc joined Aviva in January 2020 as a non-executive director and chair of the governance committee from Zurich, where she was EMEA CEO.
She was then promoted to group CEO of the insurance giant in July 2020.
Andrew Bell has also been named a Commander of the Order of the British Empire for services to the financial sector.
He co-founded AJ Bell with Nicholas Littlefair in 1995 and served as CEO until October 2022, when current CEO Michael Summersgill succeeded him in the top job.
Bell has remained at the company as a consultant, with Les Platts joining the board as Bell's representative director at the end of last year.
Other honours for the financial services sector were awarded to John Mark Yallop, the former chair of the Financial Markets Standards board, and Lynn Margaret Pamment, chair of the Financial Reporting Advisory board.
CASCAID founder Helen Wagstaff was also awarded an MBE for services to charity.
