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Questions over the lucrative part-time jobs of Britain's top company chairmen were revived today after Anthony Habgood — already at the centre of one corporate governance minefield — insisted on continuing to lead two separate FTSE 100 companies.
Packaging group Bunzl said Habgood, who has been at the top of the company for most of the past two decades, is stepping down as its £400,000-a-year chairman.
The decision follows his appointment as £315,000-a-year chairman at another FTSE 100 company, Reed Elsevier, the publishing group.
Habgood is to continue as chairman of a third blue-chip, budget hotels group Whitbread, on £300,000 a year.
He has long agitated corporate governance fundamentalists. Chief executive of Bunzl as long ago as 1991, Habgood became chairman and chief executive, or executive chairman in 1996 — a role often attacked for concentrating too much power in one set of hands.
In 2005 Bunzl appointed a chief executive but retained Habgood as non-executive chairman, continuing to exercise critics who say a chairman should be independent of a company, providing a check and balance to the chief executive.
In addition, Habgood held down the chairmanship of Whitbread, a dual role that corporate governance rulemakers have said prevents individuals doing both jobs properly.
Habgood is, however, stepping down as senior non-executive director at the investment group SVG Capital, following a shake-up that also saw the exit of director Damon Buffini of Permira.
