Golden hello worth potential £15m for the new M&S chief

M&S said Mr Bolland, who was poached from Bradford's Morrisons supermarket chain in November, will earn a basic salary of 975,000, plus an annual bonus worth up to 250 per cent of his salary, and performance-related shares worth up to 400 per cent of his salary in 2010/11.

The UK's biggest clothing retailer will also pay Mr Bolland cash and shares worth 7.5m in compensation, after his contract with Morrisons was terminated six months early.

The package will make him one of the highest-earning public company executives in the UK.

At Morrisons Mr Bolland earned 804,000 in 2008/9, also taking home another 608,000 bonus and additional benefits worth 47,000. That made him the top earning businessman in Yorkshire for two years running.

His salary had risen to 850,000 in mid 2009. It is believed Mr Bolland will not receive a payoff from Morrisons.

M&S will pay him compensation for leaving Morrisons early, comprising 1.6m in cash and 1m in shares for the loss of a bonus and share awards that would have vested this year.

M&S is also paying him 4.9m in shares as compensation for Morrisons shares that would have vested in 2011 and 2012.

M&S said Mr Bolland will take up his role on May 1, after Morrisons confirmed he ceased to be a director.

Current M&S chairman and chief executive Sir Stuart Rose earns a salary of 1.13m, and is entitled to the same proportion of bonus and share awards as Mr Bolland.

Mr Bolland joined Morrisons in 2006 after two decades working at Heineken. He is credited with transforming the supermarket following its disastrous takeover of Safeway.

He has been on gardening leave since M&S announced him as its new chief executive in mid-November, and had been holding talks with Morrisons to negotiate an early exit.

Morrisons last week took the City by surprise by appointing a little-known supermarket guru to replace Mr Bolland. The group announced the appointment of Dalton Philips, who is currently chief operating officer at Canada's biggest grocery chain Loblaw, in preference to internal candidates.