C&W boss John Pluthero earned £10.6m in scheme that sparked row

Abrasive C&W chief John Pluthero has been accused with other executives of 'unbridled greed' by investors

John Pluthero, who was 11th in the Guardian's top pay survey last year, has never shied away from a fight. The former boss of internet service provider Freeserve made his views plain when he joined Cable & Wireless in 2006: he would not put up with passengers. Clueless & Witless, as City wags called the accident-prone telecoms business, had just warned on profits and was planning a jobs cull to pull itself out of a hole.

Pluthero had been hired by C&W to rescue Energis, the telecoms firm it had just acquired. His abrasive style was not a complement to C&W's then chief executive, Francesco Caio, and when Caio decided C&W should be split between its UK and international operations, chairman Richard Lapthorne put Pluthero in charge and Caio left.

Pluthero's plan was about "selling less stuff but making better profits out of it – think Giorgio Armani rather than Top Shop", and he dumped staff and unprofitable customers in their thousands.

The plan was also, and unashamedly, about making money: for shareholders, for staff and for himself and the management team. The original £220m private equity-style remuneration deal shared across senior management that was put in place at C&W three years ago is behind Pluthero's appearance in this year's pay survey with a £10.6m packet. "Do I work harder because there may or may not be a certain price at the end of the rainbow? Well, work it out for yourself," he said at the time.

The scheme was opposed by some major shareholders at its inception and led to another furious row the following year when the bonus caps were removed. In fact, furious rows about pay have become something of a feature of C&W annual meetings; this year almost 40% of investors voted against the remuneration package or abstained, saying it smacked of "unbridled greed".

The Guardian, 15th September 2009

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