Diageo boss Ivan Menzes has bucked the trend of falling CEO salaries in the UK, scoring the biggest percentage pay rise in the country in 2018.
The findings come from the annual analysis of executive pay from the CIPD, the professional body for HR and people development, and the High Pay Centre think tank.
Menzes, who has headed Diageo since 2013, saw his total package lift by £5.66 million, or 167%, to £9.06 million.
Diageo has produced strong results for investors, including a 23% increase in total shareholder return last year, a 5% rise in organic sales growth and positive cashflow of £2.5 billion.
The assessment of FTSE 100 pay packages shows that chief executives shared a pot of £465.4 million last year, receiving a median of £3.46 million each. However median pay for chief executives fell by 13% between 2017 and 2018. This is still more than 117 times that of the average (median) UK full-time worker earning £29,574.
The highest paid CEO in the financial year ending 2018 was Jeff Fairburn of Persimmon who received £38.97 million, £6.77 million less than the £45.74 million he was paid in 2017.
At the other end of the scale, David Stevens of Admiral Group did not participate in any incentive plan “given his significant shareholdings” and was paid a single figure of £0.40 million, the lowest in the FTSE 100 this year.
Of the 100 bosses, 43 saw their salary increase. The top rise went to Royal Dutch Shell’s Ben van Beurden whose package went from £7.8 million to £17.8 million.
