Former Thomas Cook CEO gets €8m bonus

Under-fire travel firm Thomas Cook said its former chief executive Harriet Green has been awarded a shares bonus worth around £5.7m (€8m) but will donate a third to charity after the deaths of two children in Corfu. 

Green has been handed 4.1m shares — the bottom end of the range to which she is entitled — after meeting financial targets during her two and a half years at the helm of the group.

She will give around £1.9m to charity after intense scrutiny of the company’s response to the deaths of Christi and Bobby Shepherd by carbon monoxide poisoning in 2006.

The charities have been chosen in consultation with the children’s parents.

An inquest in May ruled that the children had been unlawfully killed and that the travel firm breached its duty of care to the family.

Peter Fankhauser, who succeeded Green as chief executive last November, said the travel giant failed in its handling of the tragedy and pledged to help the parents move on with their lives.