Institute of Directors’s next boss will receive barely half previous leader’s salary

The next head of the Institute of Directors (IoD) will be paid far less than its former leader as the group seeks to move on from recent controversy.

The IoD, which represents Britain’s business leaders, confirmed today that it has begun searching for a new director general and will offer them a salary of no more than £250,000 per year.

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Its chair Charlotte Valeur today sent an email, seen by City A.M., to members about recruiting a new director general. It said: “[W]e have benchmarked a maximum salary level of £250,000, and have appointed [recruiters] Odgers Berndtson to conduct our search”.

The IoD’s annual report from 2017 shows that its former head Stephen Martin was paid a salary of £436,000 that year.

Martin stepped down as director general in January after overseeing a turbulent period for the organisation which culminated in March 2018 in the forcing out of former chair Lady Barbara Judge due to racism and bullying allegations.

Martin secretly recorded a conversation with Judge, and the tape became part of the investigation that led to her suspension. Judge was succeeded by Valeur in September 2018.

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The IoD said that it has long campaigned against excessive pay and it was in this spirit that it decided to benchmark the new head’s salary at £250,000.

Valeur’s email to members said: “One key element of integrity is transparency, and the whole board of the Institute places great value on being as transparent as possible, particularly with our most important stakeholders, our members.”