wages
The best-earning CEO in our country earned 17.3 million euros last year. Ilham Kadri, the woman who was in charge of chemical giant Solvay, leaves Tim Van Hauwermeiren of the biotech company Argenx behind. He earned 10.75 million. The ranking of the highest remuneration for CEOs of Bel20 companies is drawn up by De Tijd.
Source: De Tijd
Today at 08:07
For the first time, a CEO of a listed company in our country earned more than 10 million euros annually. Not one but two CEOs broke through the 10 million ceiling, writes De Tijd.
Ilham Kadri was the best-earning CEO in 2023 in the Bel20, the twenty most important listed companies in our country. After splitting Solvay into two separate listed companies, Solvay and Syensqo, at the end of last year, she received an exceptional bonus of 12 million euros.
The traditional chemical activities remained with Solvay, while the new growth activities were accommodated by Syensqo. Kadri switched to the latter company after she won the bonus. Officially because they had successfully completed the division that was intended to create more value for shareholders: today the two companies on the stock exchange are together worth almost 500 million euros more than Solvay before the split. But also to keep her on board: other large groups were pulling at her sleeve, De Tijd knows.
That bonus was on top of her ‘normal’ remuneration of 5.3 million euros. This brings her total package to 17.3 million euros.
A second CEO, together with her, broke through the ten million ceiling for the first time: Tim Van Hauwermeiren, the CEO of Argenx, earned 10.75 million euros last year. He was able to supplement his fixed salary of 590,000 euros with a cash bonus of 553,000 euros and, among other things, stock options worth 7.6 million.
The average remuneration of Belgian top CEOs was 3.29 million last year, which is a quarter more than the year before. Without the bonuses, the average for top men and women was 2.69 million, which is 56 times as much as the average Belgian employee, who has a gross annual salary of 47,600 euros.
