Prudential chair Shriti Vadera has been investigated over a second complaint of bullying, the Mail has learned.
It comes after the former Labour grandee faced a previous similar allegation in 2021 which was subject to an investigation by an independent QC, Aileen McColgan.
Vadera was cleared but another complaint – unreported until now – was made in 2022.
That was also investigated by Ms McColgan but the Mail has not been able to establish the outcome of the second probe.
Complaints: Prudential chair Shriti Vadera has been investigated over a second bullying complaint
Vadera ‘indicated she could have handled a couple of the elements of the situation differently’, a source close to the company said.
Prudential’s board was said to be ‘very supportive of the chair and satisfied with the outcome’.
The Pru said: ‘In 2022 a complaint was investigated in line with our standard policies for such matters.’
The allegations relate to a period two years ago in a major shake-up including a management overhaul and the relocation of most staff to the Far East.
But the episode is likely to raise fresh questions over the governance of the company, which is listed in both London and Hong Kong.
Vadera is based in.London, but Anil Wadhwani – the chief executive since early 2023 – leads the business from Hong Kong.
Uganda-born Vadera moved to India and then England with her family.
She studied philosophy, politics and economics at Oxford and became an investment banker.
A key adviser to Chancellor Gordon Brown in Tony Blair’s government, she was appointed a Baroness in 2007, though now sits as a cross-bencher.
As a minister in Brown’s Labour government, she worked on issues including Britain’s response to the global financial crisis.
Reports suggest she had a frosty relationship with civil servants. It was claimed she could reduce junior members of staff to tears and she was once also said to have ‘torn strips’ off Blair.
Vadera has since held a series of other high-profile roles, including spells on the board of AstraZeneca and BHP.
She was once seen as a contender to succeed Mark Carney as Governor of the Bank of England, and became chair of the Royal Shakespeare Company in 2021. She chaired Santander UK, the bank, from 2015 to 2020 before moving to the Prudential in 2021.
The company has been transformed in recent years, splitting off its UK operations as the separately listed M&G in 2019 and demerging US business Jackson in 2021. That has left it focused on Asia.
And the sector, more broadly, has been affected by investor concerns over the Chinese consumer economy and the crisis facing the country’s debt-laden real estate sector.
Vadera admitted at the company’s annual meeting in May that Prudential’s share price performance had been ‘frustrating and disappointing’. Shares are down by nearly a fifth so far this year.
The claims against Vadera are just the latest example of trouble at the top of Prudential in recent years.
Chief financial officer James Turner quit last year after a code of conduct probe into a recent recruitment showed he ‘fell short’ of standards.
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