back to article BT Global Services' own Clouseau bags massive bonus

The man who piloted BT's Global Services division into a cliff and ensured the wider group made losses that prompted thousands of job cuts trousered £2.85m for his efforts, investors were told today. Francois Barrault last year received a £1.6m termination package, along with hundreds of thousands for school fees, housing and …

COMMENTS

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  1. Michael Fremlins

    Not a bad bonus for losing so much money.

    As he's French one wonders if he was a mole all along.

  2. Hollerith

    I'll be happy to say yes to everything

    At half the salary and a mere percentage of the bonus!

  3. Andy ORourke
    Thumb Down

    nice work if you can get it?

    Barrault told of his earlier gung-ho deal-making. "When you are new in this business you have a tendency to say yes to everything and you don't know what you're exposing your company to,"

    If that's your attitude you shouldnt be doing the fookin job!

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Stop

    Was the Board new to this business too?

    "When you are new in this business you have a tendency to say yes to everything and you don't know what you're exposing your company to,"

    like hiring a complete jerk and promising him a massive payout when he is found out and has to leave?

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Well, yes, if he came from C&W..

    They could have known this from the start, really.

    C&W has a history of pulling in people with insane packages, and, credibility so established, let's them loose on other businesses to cause them even more damage than they caused C&W. Remember Richard "Dick" Brown? He came for cost cutting, but had a mild problem discovering where the fat ended and meat (and sometimes even bones) started.

    After that debacle he was let loose on a new company which thankfully got rid of him PDQ.

    It appears BT wasn't that smart. Q: if the profits were, well, made up, wouldn't that be the breach of contract that could lead to substantial adjustments in the payments? Nice competitive move from C&W, I'd say..

    Another Q: where is Clouseau moving to? Worth avoiding that company, methinks.

    And C&W. And BT..

  6. Steve Evans

    I don't know anything...

    But I'm free next year, and will do it for £500,000 plus expenses.

  7. John Smith Gold badge
    Unhappy

    "over-optimistic contract projections "

    Well that's what the Board call it. I think fraud might be quite a good description as well. But of course IANL.

    I wonder what the majority shareholders (that would be assorted share investment funds) have to say. Not much I should imagine. They don't really think of themselves as owners

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    yes but....

    Barrault deserves no defence but he didn't come from C&W. Other BT execs did, but not him. His tenure was farcical, and his pay off is outrageous (ps how many air miles did his year of exotic jaunts earn?) but he was so far removed from the business that he couldn't have made such a mess that fast.... look further back to the machismo culture that pursued top line revenue growth as if that was the hard part.

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Malus

    It is time that executives, in addition to bonuses for doing well, had a "malus" clause in their contracts so that, if they do badly, they have to repay some or all of their salaries and income.

    Shareholders should be pushing for maluses when approving bonus systems.

  10. Chris Williams (Written by Reg staff)

    Re: yes but....

    Corrected, thanks.

    - Chris

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