Estate agency giant LSL has appointed David Barral, former CEO of Aviva UK, as its new chair.

Barral will replace veteran Bill Shannon, who has served two years in the role at LSL, which operates a dozen national and regional estate agencies including Your Move and Reeds Rains plus a range of surveying and financial services platforms.

The new chair is currently non-executive chairman of Curtis Banks, and his previous roles include senior independent director of LV Group, independent customer champion at financial firm Quilter, and chairman of Embark Group and Rowanmoor Group.

As chair designate, Barral will stand for election at the company AGM and, if elected, he will move into the role of chair of the board and the Nominations Committee.

Exciting plans

David Stewart, Group CEO, says: “I’m delighted that David is to join the board as chair. I know from our discussions to date that he recognises just how well positioned we are to grow, and I look forward to working with him to help deliver our exciting plans.”

Stewart blamed delays in conveyancing for impacting the firm’s profits and contributing to an underlying loss of £1m in its estate agency division in the first half of last year.

LSL said underlying profit for the division would have been over £6m higher in normal conditions.

MORE: LSL sold London agent Marsh & Parsons to Dexters for £29 million in January.