Salary of HP chief executive increases to €17.3m

Hewlett-Packard raised total compensation for chairman and chief executive Meg Whitman by 11% ahead of the company’s expected split into two publicly traded entities by the end of this year.

Ms Whitman, who will run the new HP Enterprise focused on corporate customers, received total compensation of $19.6m (€17.3m) in fiscal 2014 compared with $17.6m a year earlier, the US company said yesterday.

Dion Weisler, HP’s printer and personal computer chief and future CEO of HP Inc, received a 48% raise to $13.5m from $9.15m the previous year.

Ms Whitman’s initial salary was $1 per year. During fiscal 2014 this was raised to $1.5m as HP’s turnaround progressed, the firm stated.

HP announced in October that it plans to split into two distinct companies over the course of a year. Since then HP has outlined the basic executive structure of the new companies. The personal computer and printer business will become HP Inc, while HP Enterprise will offer corporate hardware and services.

“By separating into two companies with quite distinct markets, with quite distinct customers, we’ll be able to move faster to take advantage of the changing customer needs and accelerating our product and innovation road map,” Ms Whitman said.

* Bloomberg