Stobart boss who earned £5m last year whines: I’d get more if I was a woman
THE former head of Stobart Group complained of earning a ‘pittance’ in the job and said he would have been better off if he had ‘ a pair of t***’ like his former female boss, leaked emails revealed.
Andrew Tinkler, 53, earned £5.5million last year as chief executive of the infrastructure and services company before stepping do0wn.
He reportedly made the remarks after finding out another firm had paid £29million to Avril Palmer-Baunack, 54, his predecessor at Stobart.
In emails sent in December last year and seen by The Daily Telegraph, he ranted to a major investor about his pay, writing: ‘My income from Stobart Group for the last ten years was not worth getting out of bed for. Might have been better off with a pair of t*** like Avril.’
His extraordinary comments were revealed at a time when the City is trying to clamp down on sexism and high executive pay.
Ann Francke, chief executive of the Chartered Management Institute, said: ‘Any derogatory language is out of order and is obviously not acceptable.’ Mr Tinkler, a father of two who has a mansion in Cumbria thought to be worth around £3million and owns dozens of racehorses, played down the comments last night.
He said: ‘It was the heat of the moment but that doesn’t excuse it and I have apologised to Avril unreservedly.’
Mr Tinkler’s spokesman said he had worked out his pay between 2007 and 2017 and this should be seen in the context of the pay arrangements for current Stobart chief executive Warwick Brady, which he claimed could pay out nearly four times as much.
Mr Tinkler, who founded Stobart Group after buying haulage firm Eddie Stobart, also reportedly calculated he could have earned shares worth £40million under an earlier bonus scheme cancelled by Mrs Palmer-Baunack and the current chairman Iain Ferguson. Mr Tinkler’s salary for last year included shares for performance since 2013 worth around £4.5million.