Fox leaves Millennium with £1m payoff after three months in role

THE boss of Millennium & Copthorne hotels will leave with a payout of more than £1m despite checking out after a stay of just three months in the role.

As well as the pay and benefits she accrued, Jennifer Fox, who stood down by “mutual agreement” on Thursday, will bag a full year’s salary, worth £625,000, pension contributions of £125,000, a £20,000 car allowance and £234,000 in bonuses.

M&C did not set out the reasons for Ms Fox’s departure when it was announced yesterday but The Daily Telegraph understands she is leaving after a personality clash with Kwek Leng Beng, M& C’s Singaporean chairman and majority shareholder.

She had previously been president of luxury hotel group Fairmont, which owns Raffles and the Savoy, and was tasked with overhauling M&C’S strategy to help it cope with turbulence in the industry, which faces competition from alternative accommodation providers such as Airbnb. Hotels in the UK, where M& C has 21 sites, have benefited from the weak sterling, which has resulted in more overseas visitors. But the sector has also been battling rising wage bills and food costs.

Tan Kian Seng, M&C’S chief of staff, will become interim chief executive while the company seeks a full-time replacement for Ms Fox.

The FTSE 250 company, which runs more than 100 hotels around the world, reported a 4.3pc slump in revenue per available room, a key industry metric, in its half-year results last month.

Announcing Ms Fox’s appointment in May, Mr Kwek said she would “play a critical role in repositioning our key hotels [and] uplifting brand awareness of the group”.