Qantas ex-boss paid $11m
MATT O'SULLIVAN
Sydney Morning Herald
September 21, 2009 - 11:20AM
Qantas’s former boss, Geoff Dixon, is expected to draw the ire of shareholders and staff for the second year running after it emerged today that he pocketed a salary of almost $11 million despite serving only five months as chief executive last year.
Mr Dixon’s total salary of $10.7 million in 2008-09 – down 12 per cent on the previous year – included a base salary of $1.86 million and $657,500 in termination benefits. He was replaced as CEO last November by Alan Joyce, but did remain as a consultant to Qantas until March 31.
Qantas’s annual report, released today, also shows that former chief financial officer, Peter Gregg, pocketed $4.9 million after serving just three months in the role last financial year. His salary included $1.76 million in termination benefits.
Mr Gregg, the key architect of the airline under Mr Dixon, was replaced at the end of last September after eight years as chief financial officer by Colin Storrie, who earned $1.6 million for the year to June.
Mr Joyce, an Irishman who was previously the boss of Jetstar, earned $3.7 million for the year to June, compared with $5.1 million in 2007-08.
Qantas former third-in-charge, John Borghetti, had a total package of $4.9 million, compared with $5.8 million in the previous year. Mr Borghetti departed in April after 36 years at the airline, erasing the last vestiges of the Geoff Dixon era at Qantas.
The airline’s former human resources chief, Kevin Brown, also took home $3.4 million in 2008-09, down only slightly on the year before. Mr Brown also left Qantas several months ago, taking a job at the Federal Government’s National Broadband Network Company.
Qantas’s largesse towards its former executives will be galling for staff who for years have been told to tighten their belts to improve the airline’s competitiveness.
The airline has laid off up to 3250 workers over the past 18 months, and recently announced $1.5 billion in spending cuts over three years, including $500 million this financial year. It follows $3 billion in cuts over the previous five years.
Last November Mr Dixon had to face the ignominy on his last day of more than 40 per cent of shareholders voting against his $12 million salary and the pay packets for his senior executive team. At the time, influential governance adviser RiskMetrics had urged a vote against the executive pay deal because of Mr Dixon’s ‘‘excessive’’ cash-based payments.
Mr Dixon’s salary in 2007-08 made him the world's highest-paid airline executive in cash terms, beating the likes of Gerald Arpey, the chief executive of the world’s largest commercial carrier, American Airlines.
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