Do Not Pay Dozen: 12 CEOs Who Met Shareholder Spring Revolts

By by Pratap Chatterjee

CorpWatch Blog

June 14th, 2012

Martin Sorrell, CEO of WPP, the global ad agency, was defeated Wednesday in his attempt to get shareholders to approve his $20 million (£13 million) a year salary. He was at least the 12th CEO to face a shareholder revolt against excessive compensation this spring.

“Ever since the first revolts erupted in earnest this year, the “shareholder spring” has been searching for its own Hosni Mubarak to rally against,” writes Jonathon Ford in the Financial Times. “Now a suitably pharaonic candidate has emerged in Sir Martin Sorrell.”

WPP began life as Wire and Plastic Products plc in 1971, as a company that manufactured wire shopping baskets, but was bought out in 1985 by Martin Sorrell, former finance director of Saatchi & Saatchi. Today it is one of the most powerful ad agencies in the world, after having bought up some of its most famous rivals like Burson-Marsteller, Grey, Hill & Knowlton, JWT, Ogilvy Group and Young & Rubicam. Sales in 2011 hit £10 billion ($16 billion)

Sorrell defended his salary in a June 5 Financial Times commentary titled "I Act Like The Owner That I Am." "I find the controversy over my compensation deeply disturbing. Some imagine that I wake up every morning and make decisions, including those over compensation, in the shaving mirror ... If the government or institutions believe pay is excessive, tax it. Do not fiddle with the market mechanism. WPP is not a failure, it is a success."

A week later, some 60 percent of shareholders voted against Sorrell’s pay package. The revolt “appeared to stun the board directors as they watched the results appear on TV screens” wrote the Independent. (The directors were meeting on Wednesday in Dublin, where the company is headquartered to avoid taxes)

"People are concerned because there is a recession, they're concerned about inequality, inequality of wealth and incomes,” a suitably chastened Sorrell told a Reuters meeting in Paris on Thursday. “At times of recession people become more concerned about that, you see that politically.”

Here is the CorpWatch list of CEOs who have seen significant shareholder votes against their multimillion dollar salaries so far this spring.

* David Brennan, CEO of AstraZeneca, the Anglo-Swedish pharmaceutical company, resigned April 26 after shareholders voted against his £9 million pay ($14.4 million)

* Andrew Moss, CEO of Aviva, the top UK insurance company, was forced to resign on May 8 after he lost a vote against his £2.7 million ($4.3 million) pay package

* Sly Bailey, CEO of Trinity Mirror, the UK’s biggest newspaper group, decided to step down May 3 after shareholders voted against her £1.7 million ($2.7 million) pay

* Vikram Pandit, Citibank’s CEO, faced a revolt against his proposed salary of $15 million from some 55 percent of shareholders

* Brady Dougan, CEO of Credit Suisse, saw his salary slashed in half to $6.37 million

* Bill Gammell, founder of Cairn Energy, lost share options worth £2.5 million ($4 million) after 67 percent of shareholders voted against his pay package

* Mike Davies, chairman of Pendragon, a UK car dealership, saw 25 percent vote against his salary

* Andrew Sukawaty, the executive chairman of Inmarsat, the satellite phone company, saw a shareholder revolt against his £2.66 million salary ($4.25 million)

* Ralph Topping, CEO of William Hill, a major UK betting company, saw 49.9 percent of shareholders vote against his £1.2 million ($1.92 million) pay package

* Ivan Glasenberg, CEO of Swiss mining company Xstrata

* Kaspar Villiger, chairman of UBS bank in Zurich

Source

13 facts about military spending that will make your head explode (US)

By Ujala Sehgal

Business Insider

The economy is tanking, schools are underfunded, people don't have jobs.

Let's spend more money on war!

1. America spends more on its military than the next 15 countries combined.
2. In 2007, the amount of money labeled "wasted" or "lost" in Iraq - $11 billion - could pay 220 000 teachers' salaries.
3. America's defense spending doubled in the same period that its economy shrunk from 32 to 23 percent of global output.
4. The yearly cost of stationing one soldier in Iraq could feed 60 American families.
5. The total known land area occupied by U.S. bases and facilities is 15,654 square miles -- bigger than D.C., Massachusetts, and New Jersey combined.
6. Each day in Afghanistan costs the government more than it did to build the entire Pentagon.
7. In 2008, the Pentagon spent more money every five seconds in Iraq than the average American earned in a year.
8. The pentagon budget consumes 80% of individual income tax revenue.
9. Two decades after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Defense Department still has more than 40 generals, admirals or civilian equivalents based in Europe.
10. The amount the government has spent compensating radiation victims of nuclear testing ($1.5 billion) could fully educate 13,000 American kids.
11. The Pentagon spends more on war than all 50 states combined spend on health, education, welfare, and safety.
12. The U.S. has 5% of the world's population -- but almost 50% of the world's total military expenditure.
13. So where do they get all the money?

Read more:

http://www.businessinsider.com/facts-about-defense-spending-2010-11?op=1

America: Freedom to Fascism a documentary by Aaron Russo

Tax reform

Shift the taxation from income tax to land tax (Land Value Tax).
Tax the land according to its value and abolish income tax.