Sorrell sees off a shareholder revolt over his £43m pay
BRITAIN’S highest paid FTSE 100 boss has been allowed to keep his £43million package despite a revolt by shareholders.
Sir Martin Sorrell’s pay deal includes £274,000 a year to fly his wife around the world with him on business trips.
Critics called the perk ‘ridiculous’ and questioned whether the 70-yearold advertising tycoon needed an allowance for his spouse. Italianborn Lady Cristiana Falcone-Sorrell, almost 30 years his junior, accompanies him on trips in between carrying out her own role with the World Economic Forum in Switzerland.
Sir Martin, the chief executive of the world’s largest advertising agency WPP, is also paid £50,000 a year to stay in his own homes while on business, including his New York flat. This is on the premise that it saves the firm money on hotel bills.
Yesterday, almost a quarter of investors refused to back the £43million-a-year package at an annual shareholders’ meeting in Central London, but were overruled by the majority.
Sir Martin who lives with his second wife in a four-storey townhouse in Knightsbridge, argued that he is worth the money.
He said any shareholder who invested £1,000 in the company 20 years ago would now have a holding worth £15,800. But Luke Hildyard of the High Pay Centre said: ‘If Sorrell was paid a more sensible, proportionate amount of money, he would be more famous for his undoubted business prowess than for his ludicrous pay packages.
‘Instead he makes himself look a bit grubby and ridiculous.’
But a private shareholder named only as Mr Hudson said at the meeting: ‘Martin is worth every penny.’
Sir Martin’s 2005 divorce from first wife Sandra cost him £29.3million.
The tycoon, who built WPP from nothing into one of Britain’s best known firms, has donated millions over the years to his charitable foundation supporting cancer research.
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