Thought you maybe interested it appeared in today's Canberra Times. When you think about it, just like real estate agents, accountants and doctors etc these blokes should be registered. At the moment they can ruin good companies, during which time they can do their deals including their own exit stratgies under the noses of people who they suppose to represent. then they can go to the next one and do the same damage again, but in our case share no responsibility and have spare the indiginatey through not fault of our own of having them, then plan to come back to maybe ultimately own a bigger stake while been registered in the isle of Man (which should give warning bells). this is not to say every one from the isle of Man is bad.
If they had some sort of registration it may go some way to prevent this because it would be difficult to start up some where else and that would determine whether you you would have confidence to invest in a company. Less face it is managers who can brake a company
My lesson is, it is immaterial if they have years of experience like our mates, member of this and that or they will act in your best interests. anyway just a thought all I can say our mates should not get a cent and never be allow to show up in any other company register again, they should be banned with a few nice penalties.
I only hope some people get on to companies they are currently involved and speak of our experiences and how we were treated with no explanation, or apologises, no remorse and shafted. when it came to crunch they were basically worthless. any way have a read it may spur ideas and action, like a blacklist via the shareholders association. cheers and only hope for success in our case.
Executive packages under fire JOHN THISTLETON 8/02/2009 10:00:00 AM CANBERRA'S Helen Dent, the first woman to head the Australian Shareholders Association, has overpaid, underperforming chief executives of listed companies firmly in her sights.
Ms Dent said shareholders had seen share prices and dividends plummet by 20 to 80 per cent while chief executives of many of Australia's top 200 companies had increased their remuneration packages by 40 per cent or more.Slack boards and chairmen captive of strong chief executives had allowed them to structure remuneration packages with incentives for short-term gains, and often detrimental to the shareholders' and companies' best interest.
United States President Barack Obama has set a salary cap of $US500,000 ($A778,000) for executives of companies his administration is bailing out in the wake of the global financial crisis.
The Australian Greens want the Federal Government to follow MrObama's lead and limit the salaries of corporate bosses.
Shareholders' scepticism about Australian chief executives' increasing largesse is behind new draft Australian Shareholders Association guidelines which call for concise, easily understood disclosure of executive remuneration.
The guidelines recommend rewarding chief executives for significantly superior performance over the long term instead of short-term rewards and reject higher termination payments for failed executives and golden parachutes.
''We want incentives that challenge CEOs, they need to be rewarded for substantial performance, not just adequate, not just average performance,'' Ms Dent said.
She said convoluted wording of remuneration reports showed companies had lost the plot and were incompetent when structuring incentives for top executives. The former public policy economist had to read one company's remuneration report four times, then refer to two previous years' statements and the company's constitution, to understand how its pay structure worked.
Even then it was unclear. The company's chairman did not understand it either, so there was little chance an ordinary shareholder would follow it. he said many chairmen espoused transparency and remunerating themselves and senior managers in the interests of their shareholders.
''When of course it comes to the crunch they actually do the opposite.''
Ms Dent joins a growing list of women leading Australian corporate and financial organisations.
She is chair of the ACT Shareholders Association and her aims are to help investors help and educate themselves and to hold companies to account.
Both goals have taken on greater importance after the massive drop in shareholder wealth, a slump which she said vindicated the association's view about senior executives' excessive remuneration.
The Australian Shareholders Association was gathering more proxy votes from shareholders to increase its clout and bring about change at annual general meetings. Print Increase Text Size Decrease Text Size
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