Stéphane Richard and Orange are over, even if a few “formalities” still remained, before a proper farewell. While the board of directors of Orange wanted to grant an exceptional severance payment of some 475,000 euros gross for the year 2022 – i.e. around four months’ salary – to the former CEO of the incumbent operator, the manager finally chose to give it up under pressure from some of the shareholders.
“Faced with the incomprehension of certain shareholders who consider that this allocation does not comply with the principles that must apply to the compensation of corporate officers and that this method should have been provided for and anticipated, Stéphane Richard decides to waive this exceptional compensation,” Orange management said in a press release on Tuesday.
Sentenced in the fall for complicity in the embezzlement of public funds as part of a part of the Tapie affair, the manager had to give up running again at the head of the operator, while agreeing to ensure interim time to find successors. What is now done after the recent appointment of Christel Heydemann to the general management of the operator, and that – which should be ratified this Thursday, May 19 at the General Meeting of Orange shareholders – of Jacques Aschenbroich to the presidency of Orange.
Orange turns the page
Orange’s Board of Directors recalled that its initial decision “was motivated by the overall level of Stéphane Richard’s compensation since 2010, by the desire to compensate for the absence of any pension plan and to underline the spirit of permanent collaboration in which he accompanied the rigorous process of succession”.
At the beginning of April, the Board of Directors of Orange also indicated that it had “decided to grant this exceptional remuneration to Stéphane Richard for having piloted and followed for several months (…) a rigorous process of selection of the future Chief Executive Officer and the future Non-Executive Chairman”.
Not enough to ease tensions, while several voting advisory agencies had called on shareholders to reject the resolution on Stéphane Richard’s 2022 compensation at the general meeting which will take place this Thursday. This should allow Orange to turn the page on the “Stéphane Richard era”, the latter having for his part been offered various positions in big names in the banking industry across the Atlantic.