Fonterra chief executive Miles Hurrell took a pay haircut in the 2020 financial year despite his base salary increasing and his steering New Zealand's biggest company out of the red.
The farmer-owned co-operative's 2020 annual report shows Hurrell received a total of $2.008 million in the financial year, getting no short or long term incentive payments or bonuses, in line with what he asked staff earning more than $100,000 to sacrifice.
Hurrell's pay was also slim pickings compared to his predecessor Theo Spierings, who was paid $8m in each of 2016 and 2017, and pocketed $4.6m when he departed in mid-2018 despite Fonterra later recording a net loss of $196m that year, its first loss ever. Spierings was paid a total of $43m in his seven years at Fonterra.
Asked if he felt undervalued given that he had helped turn round Fonterra's $605m net loss in the 2019 year to a net profit of $659m for 2020, Hurrell said he was not bothered by the big gap in their respective pay packets.
