Jan's the man without limits

Chief executive Jan Leschly has worked wonders on the finances of SmithKline Beecham. By way of reward, the latest annual report reveals, his basic salary of #866,000 was supplemented by a performance bonus of #1.2m. Quite right, too.

It is now accepted that executives’ earnings should be tilted towards performance-related pay. There is no denying that SmithKline has recently produced superb results. The only niggle concerns the statement in the remuneration committee’s report, which says that bonuses “are subject to upper limits”. The question arises as to what the upper limits might be if they are greater than #1.2m or 1.4 times salary. The answer is that Leschly is the one executive director to whom the upper limits do not apply.