Pay rise: BAE boss Charles Woodburn earned £13.5m in 2023, up from £12m the year before
The boss of Britain’s biggest defence company scooped his biggest pay cheque last year – taking his total earnings to almost £50million since becoming chief executive in 2017.
BAE Systems chief executive Charles Woodburn was handed £13.5million in 2023, up from £12million the year before.
That took his total earnings to £46million – putting him among the highest-paid Footsie bosses.
AstraZeneca chief Pascal Soriot received £16.9million last year, while Erik Engstrom, of data analytics Relx, took home £13.6million and GSK boss Dame Emma Walmsley landed £12.7million.
Fat cat pay has been high on the City’s agenda, with David Schwimmer, chief executive of the London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG), saying that UK companies should reward executives more to compete with US businesses.
LSEG is canvassing shareholders to approve a new £11million pay deal for Schwimmer – double his £6.25million in 2023.
Since Woodburn has been in charge, BAE shares have risen to 1272p, from 631.5p in 2017.
It has cashed in on geopolitical tensions and, this year, it donated its M777 howitzers to Ukraine.
Nato members are being urged to honour their commitments, with Woodburn backing the US’s calls for European nations ‘to increase defence spending to at least the 2 per cent target’.
He said Nato’s leadership had made it clear that the target was ‘a minimum and not a maximum’.
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