At the Bank of Queensland's AGM, chairman Roger Davis, in discussing the remuneration report, noted that one key principle was "pay for performance."
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Davis (pictured, left) said the board aimed to align the interests of shareholders and management through the cycle; adding that most compensation should be at risk, with a large deferral element which should be benchmarked.
This provoked a question from a shareholder about whether the rest of the management team (a group that had apparently achieved so much under former CEO Stuart Grimshaw) were likely to remain.
Davis quipped that, "three months later they are all still here, and all still smiling," adding, "we are hopeful that they will stay but that's a matter of individual choice."
Another shareholder expressed dismay at the speed with which Grimshaw had been allowed to exit the company, asking whether a counter-offer was made in an effort to retain him.
Davis responded: "It was disappointing; it was surprising, but if you look at the compensation package offered to him from EZCorp, the company he has joined in the US, you will see there is absolutely no way we could match it."
The terms of Grimshaw's new employment contract, according to Davis, show that if all goes well in his new job, the former BOQ chief executive will earn a multiple of three or four times what he was being paid at BOQ.
"So there really was no opportunity to discuss that."
Davis was also quizzed about a merger with Suncorp, on the basis that the economies of scale would likely put that on the agenda. While agreeing that there was "some inherent logic in the suggestion," he said that there were no discussions or negotiations going on.