Two of Britain’s best-known female bosses received bumper multi-million pound pay awards –and could get even more this year. Dame Emma Walmsley, chief executive of drugs giant GSK, received £10.6million in salary and bonuses in 2024 and under a new pay structure could receive as much as £21.6million for this year.
And Dame Amanda Blanc, head of insurance group Aviva, took home £7.2million. Her pay could be as high as £10.4million in 2025. It comes amid an explosion in pay awards for chief executives after some in the City argued that UK-based leaders were not being paid enough to compete in the fight for global talent.
AstraZeneca boss Pascal Soriot, paid £14.7million in 2024, could receive £19.5million this year. And Elie Maalouf, chief executive of InterContinental Hotels Group – behind brands such as Holiday Inn and Crowne Plaza – enjoyed a £7.5million package in 2024, which could hit a maximum £20.6million depending on share price performance.
Pay hikes: GSK boss Emma Walmsley (left) received £10.6m in salary and bonuses in 2024 while Amanda Blanc (right), head of insurance group Aviva, took home £7.2m. At GSK, Walmsley’s 2024 pay brings the total since she took charge in 2017 to £66million.
Last year’s pay included a fixed salary of £1.6million, a bonus of nearly £2.9million and share awards of £6.1million but was less than the £12.7million she got in 2023. GSK said its new pay plan was designed to ‘further strengthen the link between management and shareholder interests’.
Aviva’s Blanc received a salary and benefits totalling £1.3million last year, plus a bonus of £2.2million and share award of £3.7million. The £7.2million was just below last year’s £7.3million. Blanc has been paid £24million since 2020. She will receive a 10 per cent increase in her basic salary for 2025, above the 4.2 per cent rise for the UK workforce.
Aviva said: ‘We are very mindful of the need to ensure Amanda’s salary remains competitive.’. It came as Blanc yesterday denied that the insurance giant was profiteering after profits soared 20 per cent to £1.77billion last year. The result included a 57 per cent rise in UK and Ireland general insurance profits to £708million, helped by higher premiums and strong returns on investments.
Shares hit a seven-year high, closing 4.2 per cent, or 22p, higher at 546.8p. Blanc pushed back on suggestions of profiteering, saying that while car insurance premiums had risen by 15 per cent, claims costs were up 17 per cent. ‘What you have to do is get this into the context of the increase in car parts, the inflation that there has been for labour costs and everything else,’ she said.
Aviva last year agreed a £3.7billion takeover of smaller rival Direct Line. Blanc said the group was ‘on track’ with the deal that would create a company expected to cover more than a fifth of the UK motor insurance market. It is due to be completed by the end of June and is set to result in 2,300 job cuts.
