Career Executive

Daniel Vasella remains the most highly paid Chief Executive in Switzerland with 44.2 million francs salary for 2006.

According to the most recent study published by Ethos and presented yesterday in Zurich, the president of Switzerland’s number one pharmaceutical group earned the equivalent of CHF 120,000 / day. His remuneration was actually composed of only 3 million in cash and the rest was paid in stocks and bonds.

Ethos found this objectionable not on the grounds of its magnitude per se but rather for the lack of any correlation between the compensation and job performance. The report noted that CEO Vasella’s remuneration jumped over 40% without any increase whatsoever in performance or corporate results.

In 2005, Vasella received 30.8 million francs in compensation. In 2006, taking second to Vasella, UBS’s Marcel Ospel made 26.59 million francs of which 12.5 was in cash. Nestle’s Peter Brabeck

came in third with 17.22 million francs, though in an informal poll was given first place for meticulous dress and fastidious coiffure. Not counted in his compensation were the 54 custom-made mirrors imported from Italy for installation in his luxury villa.

Other big earners among career executives were Roche’s Franz Hummer (16.7 million francs), Credit Suisse’s Walter Kienholz (16 million), Sygenta’s Michael Pragnell nad Richemont’s Norbert Platt (10 million each).

According to Ethos, the Directors of the 100 largest Swiss companies made on average 2.3 million francs each in 2006, which is a rise of over 15% over the preceding years. The study goes on to note with dismay the absence of any statistical correlation between the salaries and performance. Ethos asserts the phenomenon reflects an endemic lack of transparency in the Swiss corporate landscape.

It should be noted that executive pay is higher in the United States, where transparency is the rule, and there do not appear to any demonstrable correlations between US executive pay and performance either.