Leonardo pays less than other state companies: this is how much CEO Roberto Cingolani earns
The top management of public companies are highly coveted positions, both for their prestige and their substantial compensation. But despite the generous salaries, Italian managers end up at the bottom of the rankings when compared to their foreign colleagues, especially if we think of Carlos Tavares of Stellantis, who pocketed 13.5 million euros in 2023.
In any case, certainly among the top managers on the Italian market Claudio Descalzi of Eni tops the rankings with its 6.14 million euros in 2023. Followed by Flavio Cattaneo of Enel with 4.58 million e Daniele Schillaci of Brembo with 3.5 million euros. To close the list Alessandro Puliti of Saipem, which in 2023 earned 2.81 million euros, while Valerio Battista of Prysmian stopped at 1.1 million euros. Stefano Donnarummaformer CEO of Terna (now Giuseppina Di Foggia), earned 5.08 million.
And Leonardo? The public company active in the defense, aerospace and security sectors has lagged behind, and has always paid its managers less than other Italian companies considered comparable even if in different sectors.
But this year things change: the Piazza Monte Grappa group has decided to fill the salary gap, and has started by raising that of Roberto CingolaniCEO and general manager, who made money in 2023, in his first eight months at the helm just over one million euros. The objective is clear: “Progressively reduce the gap with the market and guarantee fair and incentive pay”.
But according to what was reported by Milano Finanza, for Cingolani, the challenge is above all to deal with the top management of large international companies, such as Bae Systems, Bombardier, L3Harris, Saab, Safran, Textron and Thales, as well as important Italian companies already mentioned such as Enel, Eni, Fincantieri, Telecom Italia and others. There is a clear gap against Leonardo in the remuneration policy that was judged “significantly lower than market levels”.
The new remuneration policy for 2024 will be submitted to the shareholders’ meeting today. In this initial phase, the changes will only affect variable compensation, including that in shares, which is highly appreciated by institutional investors. Cingolani’s fixed compensation remains unchanged a 80,000 euros gross per year as director and 920,000 euros gross per year as general manager. However, the short-term variable bonus will increase significantly, potentially reaching up to 800,000 euros per year, now representing 80% of the overall fixed remuneration, with a maximum of 125% in the case of extraordinary performance.
In Cingolani’s MBO program, ebita, operating cash flow and group orders will have a weight of 25% each, while Leonardo’s inclusion in the Dow Jones Sustainability Indices and the average accident frequency index will contribute for 5% each. The remaining 15% will be divided equally between strategic objectives related to Space and efficiency. Yet, despite the interventions, the committee notes that the overall compensation package remains below the first market quartile of comparison groupsor.
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