{"id":44058,"date":"2026-05-21T13:30:15","date_gmt":"2026-05-21T13:30:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/44058\/"},"modified":"2026-05-21T13:30:15","modified_gmt":"2026-05-21T13:30:15","slug":"shell-wins-investor-backing-for-higher-executive-bonuses-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/44058\/","title":{"rendered":"Shell wins investor backing for higher executive bonuses"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\" <\/p>\n

Shell Plc shareholders approved a new policy that could award larger bonuses to executive directors, moving the company closer to compensation levels at its US rivals.<\/p>\n

(May 19): Shell Plc shareholders approved a new policy that could award larger bonuses to executive directors, moving the company closer to compensation levels at its US rivals.<\/p>\n

The vote, more than 95% in favour at Shell\u2019s annual meeting in London on Tuesday, raises the maximum long-term share award for chief executive officer Wael Sawan from 600% to 900% of salary. Chief financial officer Sinead Gorman\u2019s bonus ceiling also increases.<\/p>\n

For Europe\u2019s largest energy company, the policy increases the potential incentives for top executives at a moment when UK boards are pushing to narrow the transatlantic pay gap. Sawan\u2019s total compensation package could now reach more than \u00a319 million\u00a0in 2026, excluding pension contributions.<\/p>\n

That compares with the \u00a313.8 million Sawan earned in 2025 \u2014 which itself was up almost 60% from a year earlier \u2014 but remains well below recent pay awards for Exxon Mobil Corp CEO Darren Woods and Chevron Corp\u2019s Mike Wirth.<\/p>\n

Among European peers, TotalEnergies SE\u2019s Patrick Pouyanne received roughly \u20ac10.4 million\u00a0in his latest disclosure, while BP Plc\u2019s new CEO Meg O\u2019Neill\u2019s maximum annual package could reach more than \u00a312 million.<\/p>\n

Shell\u2019s total shareholder returns have outperformed peers since Sawan took office, and the company has said the higher payout reflects that relative performance. His total compensation would have been greater without reductions linked to fatal accidents in Argentina, Malaysia and the UK.<\/p>\n

Shell said the pay change moves the CEO\u2019s total compensation from around the 25th percentile to just below the median of its peer benchmarking group, which includes the other oil majors and large multinational companies such as AstraZeneca Plc, Siemens AG and Volkswagen AG. The board said the policy is needed to align incentives with peers active in similar geographies and industries.<\/p>\n

Uploaded by Evelyn Chan<\/p>\n

See Also:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Shell Plc shareholders approved a new policy that could award larger bonuses to executive directors, moving the company…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":44059,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[20685],"tags":[22451,22449,22448,1150,4496,22450,21023],"class_list":["post-44058","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-shell","tag-bonuses","tag-compensation-levels","tag-executive-directors","tag-shell","tag-shell-plc","tag-total-compensation","tag-wael-sawan"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@UnitedKingdom\/116612813725439773","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44058","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44058"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44058\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44059"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44058"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44058"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44058"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}