Outgoing Towergate chief executive Andy Homer has pledged to “get out of the way” for his replacement, Aviva’s Mark Hodges.

Homer will hand over to Hodges on October 1. He said the broker’s annual management conference in Portugal would provide an ideal opportunity for Hodges to “hit the ground running”.

He said: “I’m going to get out of the way real fast – I don’t believe in joint bosses; it doesn’t work. Part of my role will be to keep out of Mark’s way and give him the support he wants, not to be on the sidelines checking what he’s doing.”

Commenting on Hodges’ appointment, Homer said: “We knew him pretty well, and given that it’s one of the big jobs in insurance, you have to consider him alongside our internal candidates.

"They performed very strongly, however Mark for us is going to be able to lead that team to the next level. It was a tough call to go externally, but he was the outstanding external candidate.”

He said he was looking forward to taking up to 12 months off, and that he was committed to remain a non-executive director of Towergate for at least two years.

He said that the broker had a number of acquisitions in the pipeline though a transformational deal was not part of its current strategy. In his non-executive role, Homer is likely to have a focus on acquisitions.

For more, read our analysis: Money or ambition - we ask why Hodges really left Aviva.