Diageo chief ’s pay packet slumps by a third after drinks giant misses long-term targets

THE boss of the drinks giant Diageo has seen his total pay drop by a third after failing to hit targets linked to the long-term performance of the company.

Ivan Menezes, the chief executive of the group which is behind the Smirnoff vodka and Johnnie Walker whisky brands, did see his salary rise by 1.5pc to $1.54m (£1.2m) during the 2017 financial year.

His annual incentives – which are based on his short-term performance – also climbed from a level of $1.96m in 2016 to a figure of $2.1m this time around.

However, he failed to hit certain long-term targets, which meant that he missed out on parts of his performance related remuneration.

This meant that his total pay dropped by roughly 35pc to a level of $4.31m over the year.

Mr Menezes is paid in American dollars because he is employed on a US contract.

As part of the company’s 2014 longterm incentive plan, Mr Menezes was awarded shares that would pay out in 2017 depending on whether certain performance criteria were achieved.

These criteria were linked to factors such as the compound annual growth in earnings per share, with different levels of reward being offered depending on how much the target was ultimately beaten by.