Companies reached deep into their pockets for more or less surprising changes to the Executive Board in 2023. For example, former VW CEO Herbert Diess, who left the automotive group in the summer of 2022, will receive an impressive sum of 12.8 million euros. However, he will not receive the usual severance payment as a one-off payment; his contract will be paid out for another two years. According to the VW remuneration report for 2023, this will bring him a sum of 12.8 million euros - more than the manager earned in his last active year.

For Diess, the fact that he was able to exercise share-based elements from the performance share plan for the years 2020 to 2022 has an impact, amounting to a good 4 million euros. However, the one-year bonus for the former CEO is even higher at 4.6 million euros.

Overall, Diess will earn more in 2023 than his successor Oliver Blume, who is also high up in the ranking with 9.7 million euros. According to publications to date, the top earner in the Dax is Mercedes-Benz CEO Ola Källenius with 12.7 million euros, followed by Deutsche Börse CEO Theodor Weimer with 10.6 million euros. The salary of Deutsche Telekom CEO Tim Höttges is also high on the list, reaching 9 million euros including pension contributions.

A retired manager at the chemical company BASF will also be the top earner in 2023. Saori Dubourg, who reportedly left the company at the end of February 2023 because she no longer wanted to support the expansive China strategy, will receive a severance payment of 7.5 million euros for the remaining term of her contract. Including her salary for two months and long-term variable remuneration, she will receive 9.15 million euros. Dubourg has been CEO of the Austrian plastics manufacturer Greiner since March 1, 2024.

The golden handshake was also given to long-time SAP CFO Luka Mucic, who has found a new job as CFO of Vodafone. Mucic had reached an „amicable“ agreement with the Supervisory Board to end his employment at SAP on March 31, 2023. He was compensated with 9.6 million euros for the remaining term of his original appointment until the end of March 2026.

Frank Appel, the long-serving CEO of Swiss Post, drew a brilliant line under his retirement package for his retirement from the logistics group, which amounted to 32.7 million euros. He also received remuneration of 5.8 million euros for the final months of his active time at the logistics group, which puts him in a better position than his successor Tobias Meyer, who took over on May 4 and earned around 4.5 million euros in 2023, according to the company.

The fact that managers can still benefit from their former employment years after leaving the company is reflected not only in pension payments, but in many cases also in the remuneration components granted as long-term incentives (LTI). Former Merck CEO Stefan Oschmann, for example, earned around 2.2 million euros in 2023 from LTI tranches for the years 2020 to 2022, meaning that 4.0 million euros are reported for him including a waiting allowance of 1.1 million euros and a pension. According to the 2023 remuneration report, former Mercedes CEO Dieter Zetsche received payments of 6 million euros from the automotive group's Performance Phantom Share Plan. Joe Kaeser, CEO of Siemens until February 2021, received 3.3 million euros from stock awards granted in 2019, while the current CEO of Fresenius, Michael Sen, a member of the Siemens Management Board until the end of March 2020, received a good 2 million euros.

Bayer also underwent a CEO change last year. Werner Baumann received 1.3 million euros for five months of operational activity and was compensated with 2.2 million euros for the remaining term of his service contract. The present value of his pension obligations will amount to 21.4 million euros at the end of 2023.

The new Bayer CEO Bill Anderson joined the Board of Management of the Dax-listed company on April 1 and was paid 6.5 million euros for his first term of office, which is not yet a full year. More than half of the American's salary is accounted for by a one-off compensation payment of 3.8 million euros for lost entitlements at his previous employer Roche. According to the remuneration report, the new Bayer CEO also received the „usual ancillary benefits“ as well as „the costs of a German language training course for his spouse“.