BG Group the FTSE 100 gas company has poached Helge Lund, the chief executive of Norwegian oil and gas giant Statoil, to be its chief executive with effect from March next year following a 6-month search.
Mr Lund has been CEO of Statoil, the international group which operates in 36 countries and has a market capitalisation of $77bn, for the past decade. He was previously the CEO of Aker Kvaerner, the industrial conglomerate.
He will be paid a base salary of £1.5m fixed for the first five years of employment, and a short term annual cash incentive worth 100 per cent of base salary for hitting performance targets, with a maximum payment of 200 per cent of base salary.
Mr Lund will also receive a one-off relocation allowance up to a maximum of £480,000 to enable him to relocate from Norway to the south east of England, where BG’s head office is based in Reading, the company said in a statement on Wednesday morning.
There will be a specially convened meeting of shareholders to vote on Mr Lund’s proposed long-term incentive plan, which will would have a face value of £12m to be earned over five years based on personal performance criteria. This conditional allocation is outside the company’s remuneration policy, and the vote will be held before the end of the year.
Mr Helge is not obliged to join BG Group if the share award is not approved.
“Helge’s track record speaks for itself,” said Andrew Gould, chairman of BG Group. “The company needs a proven leader from the oil and gas industry to deliver the exceptional opportunities available to it. We will be consulting with our shareholders and we are confident that they will be supportive.”
“He has built a world-class exploration and production portfolio at Statoil, and the company is now widely admired for its technical expertise, financial performance and strong, values-based culture.”
Mr Lund is currently a non-executive director and member of the audit committee of Novo Nordisk, and was a non-executive director of Nokia between 2011-2014. He has served as a member on the UN Secretary-General’s Advisory Group on Sustainable Energy from 2011. He is a Norwegian citizen.