Ex-RBS chief Hester lands new £1m role
Mr Hester has taken on the role at RSA Insurance, which is responsible for More Than, with immediate effect and will be paid an annual salary of £950,000 with the potential for a long-term incentive scheme shares worth up to £2.9m this year on top of a potential annual bonus.
He takes over from chairman Martin Scicluna, who has been acting in a temporary executive role following the resignation of former boss Simon Lee in the wake of the group’s Irish crisis when a £200m black hole was discovered in the division’s finances.
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Hide AdMr Hester, who grew up in the village of Crayke in North Yorkshire, left RBS at the end of September after five years at the helm.
Mr Scicluna, who reverts back to the post of non-executive chairman at RSA, said Mr Hester had an “outstanding track record of transforming the performance of businesses”. He added he will “work quickly to take the group forward”.
Mr Hester said: “RSA has grown into a global insurer with market leading businesses, talented and engaged staff and long-standing partners and customers. However, the challenges of recent months have demonstrated that we have not lived up to our stakeholders’ expectations and performed to our true potential.”
Mr Hester, whose infamous predecessor at RBS was Fred Goodwin, was offered a bonus of just under £4m while at the bank in 2012. But he declined to take the seven-figure sum after pressure from politicians and the public outraged by the bonuses paid following the banking bail-out.