Sir Rod Eddington, former British Airways chief and a special adviser to Australian prime minister Kevin Rudd, will not take up the role of ANZ chairman after encountering resistance from leading institutional shareholders.

Sir Rod, who this year suffered one of the biggest protest votes in Australian corporate history as he was re-elected to the board of Rio Tinto, the Anglo-Australian mining group, has been scrutinised by investors over his role as a director of Allco Finance, the investment group that collapsed last year.