Diageo chief’s salary doubles to £11m as shares soar

Diageo chief executive Paul Walsh’s salary more than doubled last year to £11.2m (€13.9m), after an 88% rise in the drinks company’s shares over the last three years boosted his rewards from long-term incentive schemes.

Executive pay has become a hot political topic but Diageo, the world’s biggest spirits group and the maker of Guinness, Baileys, and Bushmills, justified Mr Walsh’s salary by saying 72% of it was linked to the group’s share price performance over the past three years.

In the same timeframe, Britain’s blue-chip FTSE 100 index managed a far more modest rise of about 30%.