The compensation of WSP Global president and chief executive Alexandre L’Heureux jumped by a third in 2021, according to regulatory documents published by the Montreal engineering firm.
Posted at 3:16 p.m.
Mr. L’Heureux earned total compensation of $9.2 million in 2021, compared to $6.9 million the previous year, according to the company’s circular.
The leader received a base salary of 1.3 million. The remainder of his compensation is comprised of stock, stock option and incentive plan compensation.
In total, the company’s top five executives earned compensation of $18.3 million, representing a 45.9% increase over the previous year. This increase is slightly amplified by the fact that the CEO for Canada, Marie-Claude Dumas, was only promoted in April 2021.
“We continue to believe that our short- and long-term executive compensation framework adequately rewards the performance of our executives while being fair and competitive and consistent with shareholder expectations,” writes Linda Smith-Galipeau, Director and President of the governance, ethics and remuneration committee, in the document intended for the shareholders of the company.
She points out that 95.3% of shareholders had approved the compensation program in an advisory vote in 2021.
The document also mentions that the compensation of Mr. L’Heureux and the chief financial officer, Alain Michaud, have increased to take into account the median of the peer group (the other companies to which WSP compares itself).
In 2021, WSP’s net profit reached 473.6 million, an increase of 197.6 million compared to 2020. As of December 31, 2021, the order book stood at 10.4 billion, which represents an increase by 23.8%. In constant currencies, the order backlog showed organic growth of 10.1%.