Tuesday, March 11, 2014

Heinz CEO pockets $110 million for sell-out

The headline at BBC says it all; Former Heinz boss in $110 million payday as layoffs continue.

Layoffs for thousands, a payday of unfathomable proportions for the man who engineered the sale of the company.

I've never met William Johnson and cannot vouch for his character one way or the other, but it seems to me that a CEO has a conflict of interest in a buy-out scenario. Do his responsibilities to share-holders clash with the interests of other stake-holders? Who represents the interests of the farmers and the employees who are affected? Does the company have any obligations to the communities in which it does business?

A CEO who has a $110m incentive to pursue a particular course of action is unlikely to consider other options.

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