The big winner? Henri Termeer, who presided over the decline and now sale of Genzyme. A nice $160 million reward for…..what? Certainly not success.
I’m an unabashed capitalist. But this is yet another in a long string of Board-of-Director-abdications-of-responsibility that give pharmaceutical companies (and plenty of companies in other industries) a bad name.
Nobody should get a package anything like this. And, if a top leader does earn (note the word: EARN) a rich payout at the end of his/her tenure, it should be tied to metrics of growth that have clearly rewarded the shareholders, employees, and patients first. If you run a company into the ground, you should be run out on a rail, not driven out in a stretch limo with a bursting bank account.
It’s enough to make you need an anti-emetic.
Yes, the pharmaceutical industry has a P.R. problem. But this type of fiscal irresponsibility is a self-inflicted wound. I can hardly blame a CEO for taking the money and running. But shareholders need to revolt against directors who approve packages like this, and put them out to pasture ASAP. It’s an embarrassment and a travesty.
Pay-for-Performance – let’s start right at the top and then work our way down, shall we??
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