Total CEO Sees Pay Drop by More than a Third

Total SE’s (NYSE: TOT) Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Patrick Pouyanne saw his pay drop by 36.4 percent from 2019 to 2020, the company’s latest Form 20-F has revealed.

According to the report, Pouyanne received $4,613,715 (EUR 3,918,263) in 2020, compared to $7,248,073 (EUR 6,156,261) in 2019. The reduction in compensation is partly due to Pouyanne’s decision to temporarily cut his fixed compensation by 25 percent from May 1, 2020, to December 31, 2020, “due to the economic context”, as well as the “significant reduction” in the IFRS 2 valuation of performance shares granted last year, Total noted in the report.

Pouyanne’s 2020 compensation number marks the lowest figure the Total head has received since he took on the role of chairman and chief executive officer at the company. Back in 2015, the first year Pouyanne held both responsibilities, he was awarded $5,618,818 (EUR 4,773,750), and in 2016 he was awarded $6,967,771 (EUR 5,920,545). In 2017 Pouyanne received $7,065,268 (EUR 6,002,476), in 2018 he received $6,830,388 (EUR 5,802,972). In 2019, Pouyanne was awarded $7,246,227 (EUR 6,156,261).

A graduate of École Polytechnique, Pouyanne became chief executive officer of Total on October 22, 2014. On December 19, 2015, he became chairman of the Total board and chief executive officer of the company. Pouyanne first joined Total in January 1997, taking a job in the company’s exploration and production division as chief administrative officer in Angola, before becoming group representative in Qatar and president of the exploration and production subsidiary in that country in 1999. Following that, Pouyanne went on to work in several more roles for Total, including the president of finance, economy, and IT for exploration and production, the senior vice president of strategy, business development, and R&D in exploration and production and the president of refining and chemicals.

Earlier this month, Royal Dutch Shell plc (NYSE: RDS.A) revealed that Ben van Beurden, the company’s chief executive officer, saw his pay almost halve last year. According to Shell’s latest Form 20-F van Beurden’s single total figure of remuneration was $6.9 million (EUR 5,841,000) in 2020, which marked a 42 percent drop from 2019’s figure of $11.8 million (EUR 9,963,000).

To contact the author, email andreas.exarheas@rigzone.com