For a man said to have been reticent about taking the chief executive’s job at Resolution, Mike Biggs is suddenly in the thick of the action at the closed life funds consolidator.

After less than four months in the hot seat under executive chairman Clive Cowdery, the 55-year-old former Williams & Glyns banker has been earmarked to run a firm that will double in size if talks over an £8 billion merger with Friends Provident are successful.

As well as driving the mechanics of the merger, Mr Biggs is also likely to groom Philip Moore, Friends’ chief executive, as his possible replacement.

Mr Moore is a respected figure within Friends, but is also seen as relatively inexperienced, having taken charge only last year. He is nevertheless highly ambitious and unlikely to want to play second fiddle for long.

The plan for Mr Biggs is part of a management carve-up that would see Mr Cowdery, Resolution’s founder, remain chairman of the enlarged group.

Mr Cowdery would be free to pursue further transforming deals for Resolution and is thought to have offered a senior independent director’s role to Sir Adrian Montague, chairman of Friends Provident.

Mr Biggs, 55, was promoted in March after the ousting of Paul Thompson.

His solid credentials were seen as crucial to Resolution’s next stage of development, and they suggest that he is more than capable of making a success of the job.

A former manager at Arthur Anderson, who had stints at Morgan Grenfell and HSBC, Mr Biggs gained his reputation at Norwich Union and the series of mergers it underwent before eventually becoming Aviva, the UK’s largest insurer.

Having joined Norwich Union in 1991, he rose to general manager within its international operations and played a central part in its flotation in 1997.

After being promoted to finance director, Mr Biggs was made executive director responsible for UK general insurance at CGNU following the 2000 merger between Norwich Union and the CGU.

He then became finance director at CGNU in 2001, leaving his £1 million a year job at the rebranded Aviva in 2003 to join Resolution later that year.

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