Granted to him by the board to prevent him from working for the competition
Daniel Vasella, outgoing president of Novartis, admitted to the group's general meeting that he had made mistakes regarding the 72 million francs indemnity granted to him by the board to prevent him from working for the competition for a period of six years.
Numerous criticisms from small shareholders, but all in measured tones. Most of the 20-plus speakers deplored the indemnity negotiated by Vasella and unanimously granted by the board of directors. The fee became public knowledge a week ago, through a leak.
Then last Tuesday the top manager, put under pressure, gave up. The harsh criticisms aroused by the indemnity did not leave him indifferent, said the Friborg native to the 2,688 shareholders represented at the Basel meeting, corresponding to 1,664,171,957 votes, equal to 61.49% of the shares.
"I made two avoidable mistakes," he said at the start of the meeting. "The first was to have negotiated the indemnity agreement. The second was to believe that giving it up, paying it to public utility associations, would have had a positive social impact". Vasella had in fact stated that he wanted to donate the sum to charity. Some shareholders have expressed understanding of the outgoing chairman's self-criticism.
Most of the speakers were of a completely different opinion. "I accept public criticism," he said, adding that what happened demonstrates that transparency leads to corrective action.
Margherita Lopes – February 26, 2013 – PharmaKronos
