Ann: Funds Under Management - May 2024, page-23

You can tell a lot about a business by who brings home the biggest pay packet. At Platinum Asset Management, the biggest haul for the past two years among key management personnel has gone to marketing, sales and client relations boss Elizabeth Norman. She secured bigger cash payouts than the asset manager’s then-chief executive and co-chief investment officer Andrew Clifford, and chief financial officer Andrew Stannard for two years running! The more than $1 million in cash payouts for Norman in FY22 and FY23, in basic salary and incentive bonuses, must make her one of the best-paid marketing gurus in Australia. Elizabeth Norman and Andrew Clifford at Platinum’s 2022 AGM. Peter Rae But the pay has raised eyebrows given Platinum is widely known for its haemorrhaging funds under management and a cratering share price over the past decade of Norman’s tenure. Platinum told us the bulging pay packet reflects the fact Norman has many, many responsibilities beyond marketing the business to investors. Her role also included responsibility for business development, researcher relationships, client service, communications, product development and investor relations, it said. Of course, all these functions are about retaining and attracting funds, which is the principal deliverable Platinum has failed its shareholders on. Total FUM has slipped from $19.8 billion in May 2013 – when Norman was elevated to the board – to just $13.7 billion last month, as more clients walked out the door. If you don’t like it, we guess you can sell your shares. Somebody tell co-founder Kerr Neilson. The stewing billionaire (and largest shareholder) has watched the value of his 21.5 per cent shareholding plummet about 80 per cent or $585 million since he stepped down as group CEO in 201