The incredible financial value of a Qantas board seat

Few directors of public companies are willing to disrupt the cordial nature of board meetings with inappropriate truths. For most, the unspoken personal goal is to continue membership in the professional directors’ club, which is the closest thing to a life peerage that Australia offers. And reigning over Qantas was her highest honor.

The elite status and preferential benefits of being a Qantas board member were widely recognized, but its financial value was not. Qantas directors who used their travel allowances even moderately easily became the highest paid directors in Australia – significantly higher than directors of BHP and Commonwealth Bank, companies twenty times the size of Qantas. This fact has always been hidden in Qantas’ financial statements because Qantas heavily discounted the stated value of these travel benefits. This was permitted by the Corporations Act and Australian Accounting Standards, whose remuneration reporting rules are incredibly loose.

Loading…