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Justin King, chief executive of J Sainsbury, was paid £5million in total last year after hitting long-term targets under the group’s “Making Sainsbury’s Great Again” initiatives. The company has, however, announced a crackdown on executive bonuses.
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Embarrassment for Willie Walsh, the chief executive of British Airways, which is locked in a bitter pay dispute with cabin crew, when it was revealed that his own salary was rising by an inflation-busting 6per cent to £743,000. Mr Walsh has offered to work unpaid during July, although he admitted this week that he had not cleared this with his wife.
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Tomorrow is Twitpocalypse Day. Some experts believe that on June 14, the social networking site Twitter will run out of numbers, causing disruption or even a complete crash. Others, though, say it is the equivalent of the Y2K Bug, and the effects will be negligible.
Luanda, the capital of Angola, is the surprise head of the list of the most expensive city in the world for expat workers. The country has enjoyed an oil boom, but almost all food and other goods have to be imported.
Andy Hornby, former chief executive of HBOS and one of the chief architects of the bank’s downfall, which required it to be rescued by Lloyds TSB, has re-emerged as chief executive of private equity-owned Alliance Boots.
Another re-emerging from the banking shadows is Bob Wigley, until January chairman of Merrill Lynch’s Europe, Middle East and Africa unit. He was named both as operating partner of Advent International, the private equity firm, and chairman of Yell Group, debt-burdened publisher of the Yellow Pages.
Airlines are resorting to desperate measures to save fuel, reports the International Air Transport Association. Japanese carrier JAL has shaved a minute amount off its in-flight cutlery to reduce its weight.
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Sir David Howard, the former
Lord Mayor of London and now chairman of Charles Stanley, the broker, is the latest City grandee to express optimism that the worst of the economic crisis may be over.
A man has been sentenced to five months in jail in Taiwan for tearing off the toup?e of a politician. A judge said the assailant had deprived the politician of the “right” to look pretty.
“It’s not good news, but give us a call.” That was how some trainee solicitors at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, one of the UK’s biggest law firms, were informed - by voicemail - that they were being let go. Only 34 of 48 trainees who are set to finish their two-year internship in September will be offered permanent jobs.
A Tokyo company is finding its business thriving in the recession. It rents out fake “friends” to attend weddings and fake “colleagues” to pad out the workplace.
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Sir Anthony O’Reilly has retired as chief executive of Independent News & Media, as Alexander Lebedev moves to buy its two Independent UK national papers.
A New York shop owner took pity on a would-be robber who burst into tears, saying he was only committing the crime to feed his starving family. The shop owner gave him $40 and a loaf and he promised not to rob again.