William Hill executives forgo 2020 increases and bonuses due to COVID-19 impacts

William Hill Group CEO Ulrik Bengtsson and the executive team will forgo their performance rewards and entitlements for 2020, in light of ongoing COVID-19 impacts on the business and its global workforce. The company also confirmed the appointment of Matt Ashley as its new CFO.

In its Update on Executive Remuneration report released Wednesday, the company provided information on further developments on remuneration at William Hill ahead of the May 15 Annual General Meeting (AGM), principally its response to the COVID-19 impacts.

“From an employee perspective the most marked impact has perhaps been on those employees working in our retail business where we have had to close our stores,” said Lynne Weedall, William Hill Remuneration Committee Chair in the report. “We understand that the income that these roles provide to many employees and their families is important and so we have decided to top-up the wages of furloughed colleagues to 100% of normal salary levels for the time being.”   

Three key decisions have been taken in that sense. No salary increase will be awarded to CEO Bengtsson in 2020, or to any member of the wider Executive Team or colleagues across the group. Also, the company has withdrawn the 2020 bonus scheme for the Executive Directors, the wider Executive Team and senior employees. And Bengtsson decided that he should not accept the 2020 Performance Share Plan award made to him on 9 March 2020. No other 2020 PSP awards will be made to senior executives at William Hill, including new CFO Matt Ashley.

As for Ashley’s appointment, it followed Adrian Marsh’s decision to not take up the post of William Hill CFO. The company says Ashley is an experienced UK plc CFO, with direct experience of managing significant US operations.

“We believe Matt’s appointment is important in providing stability for our business in the face of the current challenges and will serve our shareholders well. We have received comments from a number of our leading shareholders welcoming Matt’s appointment, along with the timely manner in which it was made,” the report says.