Revealed: High earners in Bay business

In a recession, high-paid corporate chief executives are prepared to take the lead and accept a pay cut.
A Bay of Plenty Times survey of latest CEO salaries in the Western Bay has shown that Ballance Agri-Nutrients' Larry Bilodeau took a $70,000 reduction for the financial year ending May 2010.
Canadian-born Bilodeau was paid in the salary band of $700,000-$710,000 for the 2009 financial year but it fell to $630,000-$640,000 during the next 12 months after he decided not to take some of his bonus.
During 2008/09 Mount Maunganui-based Ballance Agri-Nutrients suffered a sudden profit collapse on the back of a drop in international fertiliser prices.
Ballance, the country's biggest fertiliser manufacturer, wrote down the value of its remaining stock and recorded a loss of $3.2million after tax.
The co-operative's 18,200 shareholders/farmers did not receive a rebate or dividend that year, and Bilodeau followed suit with his remuneration.
"We had a poor year and that was reflected in my salary; it's the way it should be. We preferred not to have a bad year, but throughout the company salaries were held," he said.
Bilodeau took his cut during the last financial year when Ballance returned to a $21 million profit and it's expected to be even better for the 2010/11 financial year.
"Demand is up and we have had a very good year," he said. "The positives we've seen in the dairy, sheep and beef industries, with strong commodity prices, will be be sustainable for a little while longer. We should get a year out of it and let's enjoy it."
One of the country's blue chip listed companies, Te Maunga-based TrustPower, pays the highest salary in the Western Bay for its chief executive, in the region of a $1 million a year.
When long-serving Keith Tempest left as the CEO at the end of 2009, he was being paid in the range of $1.16 million-$1.169 million, an increase from $1.01 million-$1.02 million in the year before. His replacement, Vince Hawksworth's, salary will be disclosed in the annual report released in July but will not include a full year's pay since he started in May last year.
Mr Hawksworth said "you won't expect to find [my salary] to be the same as Keith's because of his length of service. Mine will be on the lower side. The reality of this world is you have to prove yourself, and you live and die by the results [of the company] for the year."
TrustPower, the country's fifth-largest electricity retailer and generator, is one of the biggest companies in the Western Bay. It owns 36 small to medium-sized hydro power schemes, three windfarms in Australia and New Zealand, it services 220,000 customers, and its total assets reach $2.5 billion, backed by operating revenue of $785.4 million and profit of $120 million.
Global kiwifruit marketer Zespri International's Lain Jager is the second-highest paid chief executive in the region, hitting a salary band of $890,000-$900,000 for the year ending March 2010.
Overall, the region's top-ranking CEOs and council executives had moderate rises in pay over the past two years.
Port of Tauranga's chief executive Mark Cairns is earning between $720,000-$729,000, after rising $10,000 from $710,000-$719,000 in the year ending June 2009.
Cairns said his salary was set by regular market surveys.
"It may be a lot of money but it's tied explicitly to the performance of the company. There's a significant portion [of the salary] at risk.
"In the event of the company not performing, then I would expect to take a significant pay cut," said Cairns.
Allen Smith, chairman of the NZ Shareholders Association's Bay of Plenty branch, said Port of Tauranga was a shining light: "It has a good profile and is performing well for shareholders. If you are producing good, reliable results, then you should be able to pay people well.
"I think you could be quite surprised what does happen in this city but people don't follow these things [CEO pay] too closely," Smith said.
Tiffany Cook, who has just moved to Auckland after managing Drake International's Tauranga branch, said the CEO salaries were more than fair.
"The public may stand back and say that's a lot of money. But the remuneration reflects the huge responsibility CEOs take on. When you think about TrustPower, that's pretty big. CEO isn't a role for anyone," she said.
The region's top four companies - TrustPower, Zespri, Port of Tauranga and Ballance Agri-Nutrients - underpinned the local economy and provided opportunities for skilled labour.
The region's top medical administrator, Phil Cammish - chief executive of the Bay of Plenty Health Board - has stayed on the same salary for the past two years, in the band of $400,000-$410,000.
The pay of Bay of Plenty Regional Council's Bill Bayfield and Western Bay of Plenty District Council's Glenn Snelgrove rose about $6000 in the past year, but the incoming Tauranga City Council chief executive Ken Paterson, from the Northland Regional Council, has accepted a lower salary.
He is starting on $320,000 a year, after Stephen Town reached $400,647 and $405,663 in the past two years, before leaving for a new executive position with New Zealand Transport Agency.
Post-harvest operator Satara Co-operative Group, listed on the secondary NZAX sharemarket, paid its chief executive Wes Anderson-Smith in the $240,000-$250,000 band but he had to leave because of illness, and the salary band fell to $180,000-$190,000.
Business consultant Tom Wilson contracted to the group last year and was appointed the new managing director on January 30. His salary is understood to be about $300,000.