In 2023, two of Belgium’s top CEOs earned over €10 million, according to rankings released by L’Echo and De Tijd on Saturday.
Ilham Kadri, former head of Solvay until it was split in December, owes her remuneration to the exceptional €12 million bonus awarded for spearheading the reorganisation.
This, coupled with her standard salary of €5.3 million, escalated her total remuneration package to €17.3 million.
Argenx biotechnological company’s leader, Tim Van Hauwermeiren, pocketed €10.75 million in the same year. In addition to his €590,000 fixed salary and a cash bonus of €553,000, he received, among other things, share options worth €7.6 million.
In Belgium, excluding the exceptional bonus awarded to Ilham Kadri, the average remuneration of a top Belgian CEO in 2023 falls to €2.69 million, the same as the previous year. While this is 23% more than in 2006, it only offsets half of the cumulative inflation over this period, which was 50%.
This trend is also reflected in the change in median remuneration – the salary of the CEO occupying the median position in the ranking. As this measure is, by definition, unaffected by the non-standard values at the top and bottom of the ranking, it gives a more accurate picture of reality.
In 2023, this median remuneration was €1.95 million, compared with €1.6 million in 2006, an increase of just 22% over 17 years, while the general price level in Belgium has risen by 50% over the same period.
AB-InBev CEO Michel Doukeris saw the variable part of his salary reduced by €1.4 million, which pushed him down to third place with a total remuneration of €5.6 million, behind Kadri (Solvay) and Van Hauwermeiren (argenX).
For the Bel 20 as a whole, ten CEOs saw their remuneration increase in 2023, while the other ten received less.
