Otto Thoresen

Otto Thoresen joined the Association of British Insurers as Director General on 4 April 2011.

Otto Thoresen was Chief Executive of AEGON UK and a member of the Group Management Board of AEGON NV. He served on the Board of the ABI since 2005, most recently as a deputy chairman and Chairman of its Life Insurance Committee and Audit Committee.

Otto was born and brought up in Buckie in North East Scotland. He graduated from Aberdeen University with a first class honours degree in Mathematics & Statistics in 1978 and joined Scottish Equitable where he trained as an actuary. He is a Fellow of the Faculty of Actuaries and also spent two years studying management development at INSEAD.

From 1988, Otto held a series of senior marketing roles at Abbey Life, Royal Insurance and as a managing director at Royal Life International, before returning to Scottish Equitable (then owned by AEGON) in 1994, becoming its Finance Director in 2000.

Otto has been one of the industry’s leading figures advising government and regulators on consumer issues. In 2007, he led a review for HM Treasury on financial advice which was published in 2008 with its recommendations accepted by the Government. He is also a member of the FSA Financial Capability Steering Group and Chairman of the Personal Finance Education Group (pfeg), which is the UK’s leading finance education organisation. In Scotland, he sits on the Financial Services Advisory Board, which is chaired by the First Minister and is deputy chairman of Citizens Advice Edinburgh.