GAM’s top earners to face growing opposition on pay at upcoming shareholder meeting, and the Swiss asset manager's CEO Alexander Friedman is not the only focus for discontent.
Last year saw vehement opposition to the million-plus salaries paid to the leadership group around Chief Executive Alexander Friedman. Swiss investor Rudolf Bohli, together with influential shareholder advisors ISS, even managed to shoot down some of the pay increases. As a result the asset manager was forced to adjust its remuneration structure, as finews.com previously reported.
Now there is renewed criticism of management pay brewing ahead of its investor meeting on April 26, with ISS recommending last year’s salary report be rejected, the British portal «Financial News» (behind paywall) reported Monday.
Pay Justified?
ISS is especially upset at the salary paid to Tim Rainsford (pictured below). In early 2017 he joined GAM from the Man Group as head of distribution, marketing and product development, and earned some 5.5 million Swiss francs ($5.7 million) in the past year.
This makes Rainsford the best-paid GAM executive, and compares with the 4.3 million francs earned by CEO Friedman. GAM said Rainsford’s salary was necessary to attract a manager of his caliber to a company in the midst of a turnaround. In addition the salary is tied to the performance of GAM’s share price, which has risen by 30 percent since the previous AGM
Friedman Under Fire
ISS is also unhappy with CEO Friedman’s salary which isn’t apparently justified by his performance. GAM has expressed disappointment over the recommendation to reject the 2017 pay proposals, and referred to the «wide-reaching» steps undertaken in the past year to address the concerns of shareholders.
