Fat Cat file
Sir Anthony O’Reilly, chief executive of Independent News & Media, saw his overall pay and pension package for 2007 hit €2.2m (£1.7m) last year. INM UK chief executive Ivan Fallon was paid €1.66m, up 16% on the year before. Chief operating officer Gavin O’Reilly — son of Tony, natch — received €1.53m, a rise of 8.8%. Vincent Crowley, chief executive of INM Ireland, was on €1.43m.
In the last issue, we revealed that Channel 4 chief executive Andy Duncan picked up £1.21m. More details of executive remuneration are in the broadcaster’s annual report. Director of television Kevin Lygo saw his salary surge from £443,000 to £750,000, following a promotion. Lygo’s loyalty bonus was £350,000. Finance director Anne Bulford is on £400,000, including a £331,000 salary and a £56,000 bonus. Sales director Andy Barnes got a total of £438,000, while new business director Rod Henwood — who resigned in December — was paid £311,000.
Porno mag king Richard Desmond — who also owns the Star and Express as well as OK! Magazine — will see his package from his Northern & Shell holding company drop from last year’s £40m to a comparatively minor £631,000. However he will be getting a £17m Gulfstream jet on the firm.
You’d think being the boss of a city of seven million people would be a full-time job. But no, Boris Johnson is to recommence a weekly column for the Daily Telegraph, for a reported salary of £250,000. That is getting on for twice the £137,579 he will make heading the administration at City Hall.
Rupert Murdoch’s mum Dame Elisabeth Murdoch is alive and well at 99, and has just won an appeal against the Australian tax office, effectively exempting her from having to pay millions of Australian dollars in tax on an A$85m settlement she received from family trusts in 1994.