Pay bonanza for blue chip bosses: Rolls-Royce chief ‘Turbo’ Tufan set for £24m as GSK’s Walmsley scoops £15.7m

The boss of Rolls-Royce is in line to become one of the FTSE 100’s best-paid chief executives.

The engine maker yesterday announced a remuneration package for Tufan Erginbilgic that could top £24million.

He has led a stunning turnaround of Rolls-Royce since taking over at the start of 2023, and has been rewarded with a deal that puts him on course to rival AstraZeneca chief Pascal Soriot.

The details came as it emerged that Emma Walmsley, boss of UK-listed drugs giant GSK, saw her pay package soar by 49 per cent to £15.7million in her final year in charge of the company. 

Her total earnings since taking over in 2017 could reach £84.7million.

The bumper sums drew claims from campaigners of a ‘culture of corporate excess’.

Rolls-Royce’s proposals nearly double the maximum bonus levels that could be available to Erginbilgic if he meets targets.

The annual bonus could total 300 per cent of his basic salary, up from 200 per cent currently. And long-term share awards could be worth 750 per cent, up from 375 per cent.

It adds up to a maximum of £18.5million based on recent share price valuations, rising to £24.4million if they increase by 50 per cent by the time Erginbilgic is to receive the shares in 2031. 

Soriot’s maximum annual pay – after a review in 2023 – is £18.9million or £25.2million if the shares soar further by the time of the award.

Erginbilgic – dubbed ‘Turbo’ for his ferocious work ethic – was paid a relatively modest £4.7million in 2025, up from £4.1million the year before, according to Rolls-Royce’s annual report that was published yesterday.

However, he is already sitting on a paper gain of more than £100million after share awards granted when he joined the firm which are due to vest in 2027 and 2028. Since he took over, the shares have increased fourteen-fold in value.

Announcing the pay package yesterday, Rolls-Royce pointed to his stunning success in boosting profit fivefold to £3.5billion.

A spokesman said: ‘Rolls-Royce is in a completely different place to where we were three years ago when the current policy was designed.

‘Rolls-Royce’s share price has increased by approximately 1300 per cent since January 2023, taking our market cap from £8billion to £108billion, ranked as the fifth-largest listed company in the FTSE 100.

‘This progress has been driven by the actions that Tufan Erginbilgic and his leadership team have taken. 

‘The step-change in Rolls-Royce’s performance, coupled with competitive pressures in the external environment for world-class talent, necessitates a review of our remuneration policy.’

Some in the City believe bosses of UK-listed firms must be paid more to help Britain’s stock market compete with stratospheric pay deals available to US companies.

But the High Pay Centre, a campaign group that carries out research and analysis on issues relating to top incomes, fears it could mean a ‘culture of corporate excess’.

The think-tank’s interim director Andrew Speke said: ‘In recent weeks we have seen a number of big banks offer sharp pay rises to their chief executives.’

Speke said that the pay bonanza ‘appears to reflect a wider pattern in which leading FTSE 100 companies are showing much less restraint in executive remuneration’.