Mr. Baird is working on Barrick's international advisory board along with Mr. Gingrich, the former speaker of the House of Representatives. No compensation details were disclosed in the filings.
The company also gave its chairman John Thornton a pay raise as the world’s biggest gold producer repositions itself to deal with the severe slump in bullion prices.
Since Mr. Thornton took over as chairman last April, nearly every executive has been replaced, the board of directors has been overhauled and plans have been laid out to bring Barrick back to its roots, when it had a streamlined corporate structure and a healthy balance sheet.
Barrick increased Mr. Thornton’s pay to $12.9-million (U.S.) for 2014 compared with $9.5-million in the previous year, according to a regulatory filing. Company co-president Kelvin Dushnisky earned $4.8-million, while his counterpart Jim Gowans earned $7.3-million last year. Kevin Thomson, a top m&a lawyer who joined Barrick in October as its executive in charge of strategic matters, earned $2.4-million, including his signing bonus and other provisions.
The higher compensation for Mr. Thornton comes after Barrick reported a narrower loss in 2014. Barrick and the rest of the gold industry is under immense pressure to cut costs with gold down 30 per cent since 2011. The miner’s stock is trading around $14.20 (Canadian) a share, down 25 per cent since Mr. Thornton took the reins of the company.
Since that time, dozens of Barrick veterans left including the miner’s CEO Jamie Sokalsky, chief financial officer Ammar al-Joundi, corporate development executive Rick McCreary and top lawyer Sybil Veenman.
Mr. Sokalsky, who stepped down as chief executive last year when Mr. Thornton eliminated the CEO position, received $8.1-million (U.S.), including severance pay. Mr. Al-Joundi got $2.6-million, which does not include severance. Mr. McCreary also received a severance package, but that was not disclosed.
Last year, the company started using a detailed scorecard to grade executives on goals such as free cash flow, return on invested capital and production. The new method was adopted after shareholder outrage over Mr. Thornton’s $11.9-million signing bonus prompted Barrick to overhaul its executive compensation arrangements.
Mr. Thornton, a former Goldman Sachs executive, recently told investors that Barrick’s focus would be on gold and killed previous plans to diversify further into copper and other commodities.
The former banker has tried to create more accountability at Barrick. Mr. Thornton and his new management team, along with Barrick founder Peter Munk, have all loaded up on the miner’s stock. He has promoted 35 of its top performing employees to partner, where they too will be required to hold stock and will be graded on the specific metrics.
The majority of Mr. Munk’s team has left or retired from Barrick. Though Mr. Munk and two of his longest serving directors, William Birchall and Brian Mulroney, will continue to have ties to the gold miner for the time being.
The board has bestowed Mr. Munk with the chairman emeritus title, a role that will allow him to carry out some duties assigned by Mr. Thornton. Mr. Munk will be allowed to use an office in Barrick’s Toronto offices until the end of 2016. Mr. Munk received $833,333 for the four months he served as chairman last year. He did not receive a retirement bonus but did earn around $3-million from stock units that automatically vested when he retired.
Mr. Mulroney, a former Canadian prime minister, stepped down as a Barrick director last year but is serving as the company’s senior adviser on international affairs. He received more than $1-million (Canadian) for his work as an adviser and director.
Mr. Birchall, who was one of Barrick’s founding board members, will step down as vice-chairman at this year’s annual meeting of shareholders and then retire as director in 2016.
Investors will get a chance to vote on Barrick’s executive compensation plans at the company’s shareholder meeting April 28.
Original Article
Source: theglobeandmail.com/
Author: Rachelle Younglai
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