KEY POINTS:
Small shareholders are warning of the dangers of performance-based bonuses, as a new CEO takes the helm at Telecom.
The former head of BT Wholesale, Paul Reynolds, has today been named as Theresa Gattung's replacement. The position comes with a base annual pay of $1.75 million plus a further $1.75 million performance incentive.
Oliver Saint from the New Zealand Shareholders' Association believes Mr Reynolds' basic pay is in line with others in the same position, and does not object to it.
However, he hopes company boards in general take note of what happened at Sky City when CEO Evan Davies stood down with a $1.7 million exit payment, despite questions being raised about his performance. Mr Saint says companies must make sure such large amounts of money are not paid out if an executive does not meet performance requirements.
Meanwhile, Paul Reynolds arrived in New Zealand yesterday, spending the evening in Auckland finalising details of his appointment to the Telecom job.
The Dominion Post newspaper had reported sightings of Mr Reynolds in Wellington over the past three days and at 6'7" he is unlikely to have gone unnoticed in a crowd.
However, Mr Reynolds confirmed he touched down in Auckland yesterday to spend the next few days meeting Telecom staff, clients and conducting media interivews.
According to a story published by news agency Thomson Financial, talk of Reynolds' departure had been an "open secret" among senior management at BT.
- NEWSTALK ZB, NZHERALD STAFF
