Air France-KLM new boss pledges to invest half his hefty salary in the airline
Benjamin Smith plans to invest in the company’s stock as a gauge of ‘confidence’
Paris — Air France-KLM’s new boss said on Monday that he would invest half of his fixed salary into the company’s stock as a gauge of his "confidence" in returning the strike-prone airline to a more solid footing. Benjamin Smith made the pledge in a video message to staff as he officially took up his new position as CEO at the French-Dutch airline. His fixed salary is €900,000 ($1m) a year, but his total compensation can reach as high as €4.25m if performance targets are met. The pay package was criticised by unions, as it is more than three times the amount paid to his French predecessor, who quit in May after gambling his job on getting staff to accept a pay deal that was rejected in a company-wide vote. "I have already made a personal investment by moving with my family to France," Smith says in the video, according to a French transcript obtained by AFP. "Today I have decided to make another investment by investing half my fixed salary in Air France-KLM’s share capital." "It’s a...
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