THE chief executive of the publicly listed Pacific Environment Limited says disclosure is the key to ensuring there are no nasty surprises in executive remuneration packages.
Geoff Masters believes public company boards must be held accountable and subscribes to the ASX Corporate Governance Council’s principle, ‘if not, why not’?
“Reward the behaviour you wish to display,” he says. “Getting paid for a crashed result is not good for anybody.
“The board should be held accountable and if it has signed off on an executive package, all we have to do is disclose the information.”
Regarding the Federal Government’s decision to look at a binding shareholder vote for executive termination payments based on 12 months salary, Masters instead urges transparency.
“It’s counter-intuitive to a business if the government can structure the way it should be driven, it’s too generic. We’re in danger of a one formula suits all and none of us are that smart,” he says.
“You make a conscious decision to become CEO of a public company, so be prepared for disclosure in all aspects of trading.
“It’s very hard to run a public company without it.”
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