An Aviva spokesperson said that the firm had been reviewing its strategy in order to build a “more vibrant business and lay the ground work from which Euan Munro can grow the business”.

Munro joins from Standard Life Investments where his responsibilities included managing and creating the successful Global Absolute Return Strategies fund, which currently has £18.55 billion in funds after strong performance over the past two years.

Munro is the permanent replacement for Alain Dromer, who left Aviva Investments in April 2012 as part of a major overhaul at parent company Aviva.

“At the heart of this will be a focus on offering investment propositions which deliver income with low volatility. Our key objective is to significantly improve profitability by focusing on capabilities and propositions that build on our heritage in managing long-term savings,” the spokesperson said, adding that the changes will include redundancies at the firm.

“There are certain changes we need to make to our products and structure. In light of this, we have had to give the difficult message to some of our colleagues that they will be leaving the business,” the spokesperson explained.

About 60 people are affected by the redundancies, which are part of the 2000 roles Aviva Group announced were being reduced earlier this year.