Outgoing AusPost CEO Ahmed Fahour will be leaving his post with an astounding remuneration package of $10.8m, much to the chagrin of the print and mail industry.
Fahour resigned following national outcry when AusPost was forced to reveal his salary, which came in at a base of $4.6m plus $1.3m bonus, meaning he was the country’s highest paid civil servant, earning five times that of the head of the RBA, and ten times that of the prime minister.
However the taxpayers' largesse to the controversial CEO will continue with his leaving package from AusPost, which will see Fahour will receive some $8.7m in bonuses taking his leaving cheque to a stratospheric $10.8m.
Fahour’s $10.8m is more than double the $5m estimates that were stated before the remuneration report was released. His time at AusPost was marked by a severe decline in the letters business volumes and service, and large price rises, and the constant restatements of accounts, some 49 times.
[Related: AusPost figures clouded under restatements]
John Stanhope, chairman of the AusPost board – which has since been stripped of its ability to decide remuneration for its CEO – says, “While it is recognised that community expectations have changed since Mr Fahour’s appointment in 2010, it is not practical or possible to retrospectively change our contractual obligations to him.”
His replacement, Christine Holgate, former Blackmores CEO, will be earning $1.37m plus the potential to earn another $1.37m in repayments, a fifth of Fahour’s $5.6m. However, Holgate will be leaving her position at Blackmores losing $2.63m in forfeited share rights according to the Blackmores annual report.
She will not be eligible for long term incentive payments in 2018. Holgate will take over from Fahour on October 30.
Fahour is yet to announce his next move but rumours are circulating he may get the Amazon CEO position, when the US-based online shopping portal arrives later this year.
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