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LONDON (Alliance News) - WPP PLC Thursday moved to assuage shareholder concerns over its corporate governance and in particular the pay packages awarded to top executives, by appointing three new non-executives to its board and compensation committee.
The advertising giant had pledged to appoint more independent members to its board and shake up its incentive schemes after it suffered a shareholder revolt last year, particularly over the pay and bonuses awarded to chief executive Martin Sorrell.
WPP said it had appointed Daniela Riccardi, formerly CEO of luxury goods company Baccarat and Diesel Group and an executive at Procter & Gamble for 25 years, John Hood, former vice-chancellor of the University of Oxford and currently a non-executive director of oil company BG Group PLC, and Nicole Seligman, the chief of Sony Corporation in the US.
Hood will be head of WPP's remuneration committee.
This announcement follows the appointment of four non-executive directors in June. Roger Agnelli, Jacques Aigrain, Sally Susman and Hugo Shong were appointed as part of a board reshuffle implemented by Chairman Philip Lader, who will be stepping down from his position next year.
WPP had previously been criticized for the not having enough independent board members. Jeremy Rosen, the previous head of the remuneration committee, had come in for particular criticism after Sorrell's total GBP11.9 million compensation package for 2011 was rejected by 60% of shareholders who voted at the company's annual general meeting in 2012.
At this years annual general meeting, things went much more smoothly for WPP, with only 19.42% of shareholders voting against the company's remuneration report, and 16.30% voting against the executive performance share plan.
Despite the protests, Sorrell's pay package was still around GBP17.6 million for the full year 2012, an increase of 50% from 2011, mostly as a result of the company's long term inventive scheme which constituted around GBP11.3 million of the total. Sorrell's base salary for 2013 was reduced by GBP150,000.
WPP's shares were trading up 0.16% at 1,276.00 pence Thursday morning.
By Hana Stewart-Smith; hanassmith@alliancenews.com; @HanaSSAllNews
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