City Diary: Deloitte to be called to account in Autonomy scandal

Sir Martin Sorrell was paid more than any other FTSE 100 chief executive last year, sparking another significant protest vote at the WPP AGM in June. Some 28pc of shareholders opposed or abstained over his record-breaking £30m remuneration package.

Sir Martin remains remorseless, however. “It’s not pay,” he told Diary yesterday, pointing to the fact that 90pc of the pot was performance-related and arguing that after 28 years building WPP he was well aligned with shareholders’ interests.

“If people can appreciate that then fair enough, if they don’t then fine,” he said. So there.

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It’s farewell, for now, to Michael Tobin, the chief executive of Telecity, who is heading for the exit clutching more than £750,000 in lieu of working his notice.

Perhaps the soft landing will afford him time to pen more management manuals, following up on last year’s page-turner Forget Strategy. Get Results. which boasted sections including “No is a journey towards yes” and “Release the freedom of the hypertext mind”.

Thought-provoking stuff. In fact we have to wonder if the Telecity board didn’t itself get ideas from Mr Tobin’s book, especially the sections entitled “The fortitude of tough choices” and “Getting rid of what is dragging you down”.

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Everyone knows that Sir Richard Branson and Willie Walsh, the head of British Airways’ parent company, are old foes. After a very public spat two years ago, which culminated in a bet involving a “knee in the groin”, expectations were high that one would nominate the other to do the Ice Bucket Challenge.

Alas - perhaps judging that Sir Richard didn’t need any help publicising himself - Walsh challenged Richard Anderson, the chief executive of Delta, the US airline that two years ago bought a 49pc stake in Virgin Atlantic.

The BA man couldn’t resist a swipe at Sir Richard, though. In issuing his challenge, Walsh called Anderson the man “who effectively owns and controls the Virgin transatlantic business”, in reference to a European probe of whether Delta effectively controls Virgin, against ownership rules. Sir Richard of course denies the strings are pulled from the US, but some grudges never die.

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