£1.4m to stay away for ex-Aviva boss
THE ousted boss of Aviva was paid almost £2m for ten months’ work last year – and will get up to £1.4m more on gardening leave.
Amid concern over his performance as chief executive after a string of mis-steps, Mark Wilson ( pictured) pocketed £1.8m in pay and bonuses before being forced out in October. He was put on leave for a year, in which time he receives a maximum of £1.4m.
It comes as Aviva Investors, the firm’s fund management arm, spearheads efforts to rein in skyhigh pay for bosses.
Wilson was axed by his board after mounting concern over a sluggish share price performance and fears he was spending too much time on unprofitable operations such as tech start-ups.
He also oversaw a disastrous effort to cancel special highdividend preference shares that would have landed investors with huge losses. Aviva U-turned on the plan days later after an outcry.
And Wilson put backs up by taking a non-executive director job on the board of US investment manager Blackrock, a firm many people felt was a direct competitor. For the ten months to October 2018, the New Zealander was given a basic salary of £816,000, a £692,000 annual bonus, £229,000 towards his pension, and £99,000 in benefits such as a car allowance. He was then put on leave for a year on full pay and benefits. Aviva Investors is one of the most vocal critics of high pay for bosses. Its boss, Euan Monro, has called for a rethink on skyhigh bonuses. Yesterday, Labour MP Rachel Reeves, who is chairman of the Business Select Committee, joined calls for major change. She said: ‘I would like to see greater transparency in the pay packages of chief executives.’ Earlier this month Aviva appointed insider Maurice Tulloch to succeed Wilson.
Government contractor Capita handed £10m worth of shares to company directors under a longterm share plan.
Fourteen senior staff including chief executive Jonathan Lewis, finance boss Patrick Butcher and corporate affairs director Katja Hall were handed 8.3m shares. Lewis got nearly 1.8m shares.