When CEO Donald Stewart says that Sun Life Financial has sharpened its focus on frugality and cost-control measures to combat the global recession, the
Scottish-born executive means it. This year’s annual meeting was held in a small room crammed with about 100 hardwood chairs on the second-floor of the Sun Life building at 150 King Street West in downtown Toronto. Granted, additional seating was available in other rooms down the hall and proceedings were broadcast globally via the Internet. Nevertheless, I can assure you that the main conference space for one of North America’s top 5 life insurance companies was as spartan as a high school assembly. The austere setting was appropriate. When the room became too cold, one shareholder strutted to a microphone and demanded that the chilling and wasteful air conditioning be turned off to save costs. Ultimate in Executive Cost-Cutting Measures Another shareholder rights advocate was even more vocal. Thundering that obscene executive compensation is the root cause of the current economic meltdown, the shareholder then punched out three points. First, Mr. Stewart should be thankful just for having the opportunity to be CEO for a world-class life insurer like Sun Life. Second, Donald Stewart shouldn’t have accepted his annual compensation of US$5.7 million for 2008, since he was already “blue-blood” rich and in any event no one should be paid the equivalent of $2,000 per hour just for showing up for work every day.
Instead, Mr. Stewart was asked to donate his entire pay package to charities that champion environmental causes.