Ethos To Vote Against Novartis Executive Salaries

(MENAFN- Swissinfo) The Ethos Foundation recommends that Novartis shareholders vote against all compensation-related items at the Basel-based pharmaceutical giant's Annual General Meeting on March 7.

This content was published on February 22, 2025 - 12:24 2 minutes Keystone-SDA

• Français fr Novartis: Ethos votera contre les salaires des dirigeants Original Read more: Novartis: Ethos votera contre les salaires des dirigeant

In 2024, the salary of Novartis CEO Vasant Narasimhan reached a record level of CHF19.2 million (about $21.4 million), the highest since 2009, the pension fund consultancy wrote in a press release on Friday. This extreme level is the result of a gradual increase in the CEO's variable compensation target in recent years, and the leverage effect of variable compensation plans.

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As a reminder, in 2009, the CEO at the time, Daniel Vasella, received CHF42 million.“When Vasant Narasimhan became CEO in 2018, his remuneration was around ten million francs. The company assured us at the time that excesses were a thing of the past,” stressed Vincent Kaufmann, director of the Ethos Foundation, quoted in the press release.

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Ethos also intends to reject the proposal of a maximum remuneration of CHF95 million for the eleven members of the Executive Board for 2026. Although the financial performance of Novartis in 2024 was relatively good, the foundation believes that these salaries are too high.

Adapted from French by DeepL/ac

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