MARTHA LANE FOX | COMMENT
Don’t have a punch-up over ‘obscene’ pay demands
The Sunday Times
‘I want you to agree to an absolutely obscene contract for me. If you’re not being harangued by shareholders for the decisions you’ve made then you haven’t done a good job and I will feel let down, and we will have a huge problem.”
With these inspiring words, a usually mild-mannered chief executive slammed the phone down and left me to deal with his pay. Not for the first time, I questioned why on earth I had agreed to chair the remuneration committee. Surely there is no less rewarding position on a board?
Pay is making headlines again now. In the past few weeks there have been public shareholder revolts at Pearson, Ocado and Metro Bank, not to mention the high stakes stand-off between the
