Consingia posts ads to fill top job
Headhunters employed by Consignia, the troubled Royal Mail and Post Office group, will this weekend begin the search for the executive needed to fill one of the toughest jobs in British business.
The state-owned organisation, which has been losing pounds 1.2m a day, is seeking a new chief executive to replace John Roberts who last month announced his intention to retire later this year.
Newspaper adverts say the new boss will be a proven chief executive with a track record in pushing through large-scale business turnarounds.
Mr Roberts, who has worked for the post office since 1967, received a basic salary of pounds 211,000 last year but his successor can expect to receive considerably more for taking on a role Consignia chairman Allan Leighton has described as one of the great leadership challenges.
Marisa Cassoni, the group’s finance director, is on a basic salary of almost pounds 300,000.
The new chief executive, whose appointment will have to be approved by industry secretary Patricia Hewitt, is expected to be offered a package of incentives to help secure a much needed improvement in the group’s fortunes, after a year in which it recorded an unprecedented pounds 1.2bn loss.
Major changes are being pushed through to cut costs but the pounds 7bn turnover business faces growing challenges from competition in the postal services market.
