The outgoing chief executive of Royal Dutch Shell who was the focus of a shareholder revolt over pay at the multinational oil company has called for reform of how executives are rewarded.
Jeroen van der Veer, who steps down this month as chief executive of Shell, faced criticism from shareholders for receiving a €1.35m ($1.88m) bonus from an incentive scheme even though the company failed to meet performance targets for 2006-2008.
Anger over the bonus for Mr van der Veer and other directors sparked one of the biggest investor rebellions over directors' pay when 59 per cent of Shell's shareholders last month voted down its remuneration report. Apart from the bonus, he also received a 58 per cent increase in pay in 2008 to €10.3m.