For big companies, stability in corporate hierarchy is comforting to shareholders, but it isn’t always easy. As Telus found out in 2015, sometimes things just don’t work out with a new executive, and changes needs to be made.
In 2014, Telus replaced 14-year CEO Darren Entwhistle with Joe Natale, previously the company’s chief commercial officer. Last summer, however, Natale decided he couldn’t make the required move to Vancouver that Telus demanded, and so he agreed to step down after only a year as head executive.
Between Entwhistle and Natale, Telus paid out $18.7 million to the two in salary and various bonuses in 2014, but the reverse of the CEO swap in 2015 cost the company even more.
It was announced today that in 2015, Natale and Entwhistle were paid a total of $24.1 million for their roles in the company. Entwhistle remained Executive Chair of Telus’ Board of Directors during Natale’s tenure and earned a ‘contract renegotiation grant’ worth $2.7 million for resuming his position as CEO.
In total, the base salaries of both Entwhistle and Natale for 2015 were $1.375 million and $1.324 million respectively, and the overwhelming majority of their salaries consisted of bonuses and transition payments collected during the shuffle, as was the case in 2014.
Telus insists that while the succession situation isn’t ideal, the company says given the circumstances, bringing Entwhistle back as CEO is the right move. At the end of 2015, Telus recorded 8.5-million wireless subscribers, which is an increase of 2.1 percent from 2014.
[source]The Globe and Mail[/source]
