Alison Platt and Carolyn Fairbairn - Tesco’s wealthy women responsible for setting CEO’s £4.4m salary

Tesco’s remuneration committee decides on how the supermarket will pay its directors. Last year, it was announced the supermarket’s CEO, Ken Murphy, was paid £4.4 million - and is expected to gain a 3% salary increase this year.

The CEO received a huge pay packet despite shoppers struggling with high food prices in Tesco supermarkets amid the cost of living crisis. A Which? monthly supermarket price comparison found that Tesco was the fourth cheapest supermarket in August.

The individuals who are part of Tesco’s remuneration committee are Alison Platt (Chair), Carolyn Fairbairn, Thierry Garnier, Stewart Gilliland and Byron Grote. Two women are on the board, with one being the Chair of the committee.

But how in touch are they with pressures shoppers are facing? What are their backgrounds? Let’s take a closer look at Alison Platt and Carolyn Fairbairn.

Who is Alison Platt?

Alison Platt was appointed Chair of Tesco’s Remuneration Committee in 2016. According to the Financial Times she earns around £125k. The supermarket said she had gained “experience from working for high-profile consumer-facing companies” and had “strategic insights on diversity and inclusion.”

It added that she has “extensive experience of leadership in customer-driven organisations across the healthcare, insurance and property sectors”.

Not only is Platt on the board at Tesco she also currently holds the position of Chairman at Dechra Pharmaceuticals Plc, Chair designate of Ageas (UK Limited), and  Advisor to Huntswood CTC Limited.

Before being on the board at Tesco, Platt was formerly the CEO of Countrywide until January 2018. Countrywide is a leading provider in estate agency, lettings, mortgage services, land and new homes, surveying, conveyancing and property management. It includes 50 High Street chains, among them Bairstow Eves, Hamptons, John D Wood, and Gascoigne-Pees.

She was Countrywide’s first woman chief and was named in a ‘100 Women to Watch’ Female FTSE Report in 2012. When Platt left the company, Countrywide confirmed she would be paid a full year’s pay of £675,000 in lieu of a 12-month notice period.

She did not go to university and instead made a career first with British Airways - joining its cabin crew division as a management trainee pushing trolleys.She then moved to private healthcare firm Bupa where she stayed for 21 years, doing a variety of roles before ending up as managing director for international development.

In 2011 she was also appointed a non-executive director on the board of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

She is married to husband Bill and has three children, two of whom are stepchildren. They live in Teddington and she is a dedicated Manchester United fan.

Platt told the Evening Standard: “It all began many, many years ago for me in Oldham, north Manchester. I came to London when I was 18. There was a huge crash in the economy so there were no jobs except in London.

“I joined British Airways and spent 14 very happy years there. I joined as a management trainee but that only lasted about 18 months. I became a stewardess for five years on 747s. I loved it, and learned masses about what it is to deliver for customers.”

Who is Carolyn Fairbairn?

Dame Carolyn Fairbairn joined the board on 1 September this year. Tesco says she brings a “wealth of experience” and her “deep understanding of the macroeconomic, regulatory and political environment”.

She also currently holds the position as Non-executive director of HSBC Holdings plc, Chair of the Board of Trustees of Royal Mencap Society and Honorary fellow of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, and of Nuffield College, Oxford. She holds a double first-class degree in Economics from Cambridge University, an MBA from INSEAD and MA in International Relations from the University of Pennsylvania.

From 1995-97, Fairbairn was a member of Prime Minister John Major’s Number 10 Policy Unit specialising in health policy.

She began her career as an economist at the World Bank and then as a journalist for The Economist magazine. She spent her early career at McKinsey, before taking on a range of senior leadership roles in the media industry.

As a partner at McKinsey, Fairbairn was a leader of the firm’s media practice. As BBC Director of Strategy, she led the BBC’s digital strategy and ran its transmission arm. While with the BBC, in 2003 she designed and launched Freeview, one of the UK’s most successful TV services.

According to the Financial Times, she left the BBC in 2004 after her husband, Canadian Peter Chittick, sold his stake in the hotel chain Hotel du Vin. It was bought by property company Marylebone Warwick Balfour for £66.4 million.

Following the sale Ms Fairbairn and Mr Chittick travelled for a year with their children. The couple also own a hotel, Crillon le Brave, in Provence, France.

The Guardian reported in 2004 that she had an annual salary of £248,000.

From 2007-2010, Carolyn was a member of the Executive Board at ITV. Carolyn has extensive FTSE board experience as a non-executive director of Lloyds Banking Group, The Vitec Group and Capita plc. She was also a Director of the Competition and Markets Authority, the UK Statistics Authority, and from 2008-11, the Financial Services Authority  and as a Trustee of Marie Curie.

From 2015 to 2020, Dame Carolyn was Director-General of the Confederation of British Industry (CBI), the UK’s largest business organisation, where she represented business on issues ranging from the UK’s trading relationship with the EU and sustainability, to diversity and inclusion in the workplace. When she joined CBI, it was reported that she would be paid £340,000 a year.