Ford Boss Paid $24m Even Though The Wheels Fell Off

Sydney Morning Herald

Thursday April 12, 2001

Ian Porter. SOURCE: The Age

The Australian head of the Ford Motor Company, Mr Jacques Nasser, has easily retained his place as the best-paid Australian executive in the world - at least when it comes to cash in hand.

Last year Mr Nasser, who went to school in Melbourne and started with Ford at its Broadmeadows plant in 1968, took home salary and bonuses worth $24.2 million at the current exchange rate.

The details of Mr Nasser's pay contrast sharply with the results of Ford Australia, which were released yesterday.

The local offshoot of the car group reported a loss of $16.1 million for 2000, its first loss for seven years.

The poor Ford Australia result completed a dismal year for local car makers, with three of them slumping into the red and only one, Holden, making a profit.

And Ford suffered expensive embarrassment over its US 4WDs and their dangerous tyres.

Mr Nasser's pay packet was up 19 per cent from his 1999 take- home pay of $20.2 million (at the current exchange rate) and put him at the top of the list of Australian executives who do not own the company they work for.

The big rise in pay was augmented by a further $7 million in long-term bonuses and share options worth an estimated $11.4 million at the time they were issued last month.

Mr Nasser's cash remuneration put him even further ahead of the two other prominent US-based Australians, Mr Geoff Bible of Philip Morris and former Brisbane schoolteacher Mr Doug Daft of Coca-Cola.

However, this pair have the edge when the value of share options is added. Mr Daft's options were worth $164 million at last count, more than 20 times the $8 million he was paid in salary and bonuses.

Mr Bible's cash-in-hand remuneration of $11 million was less than half that of Mr Nasser but the value of Mr Bible's share options was about $50 million.

Ford Australia's bad year - page 26