Shareholders get their man in the end
A rare example of shareholders anger over excessive remuneration bearing fruit has been seen with the giant oil company Shell.
Bonuses awarded to Shell executives this year were widely considered to be excessive and the remuneration committee came in for intense criticism. The committee felt it proper to award significant bonuses even though performance targets had not been met.
The usual symbolic exercise of shareholder rights took place (see previous posts on this subject) and the pay settlement was voted down at general meeting. Now it is reported in The Times that two members of the remuneration committee, including the chairman Sir Peter Job, will step down. It looks like the shareholders did get their scalps after all.
One other interesting thing about the reporting of this event is that Shell itself seems to have come to the view that after 9 years as a non-executive director (NED) Sir Peter could no longer be considered to be truly independent. This reflects other discussions currently being had about the role of NEDs and suggests that the days of a NED having a long term sinecure are now well and truly gone.
Tags: non-executive directors, shareholder control, shareholders rights
shareholders rights | Ed Weeks | 
September 14, 2009 5:01 pm
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