Unilever 2014 Annual Report Download - page 40

In the context of the external Board evaluaton, carred out n 2014,
the Boards evaluated the performance of the ommttee The
ommttee also carred out a self-assessment of ts performance
Both assessments concluded that the ommttee s performng
effectvely Based on ts self-assessment, the ommttee decded
that to enhance the overall knowledge of the Board on the key
ssues that the ommttee s engaged wth, t would add a specfc
remuneraton module to the nducton program for Non-Executve
Drectors and conduct a remuneraton knowledge sesson for the
Boards
ADVISERS
Whle t s the ommttee’s responsblty to exercse ndependent
udgement, the ommttee does request advce from management
and professonal advsers, as approprate, to ensure that ts decsons
are fully nformed gven the nternal and external envronment
The ommttee apponted Delotte LLP to provde ndependent
advce on varous matters t consdered Durng the year, Delotte
also provded other servces to Unlever prmarly n relaton to
the Drectors’ Remuneraton Report The wder Delotte frm has
also provded tax and consultancy servces ncludng expatrate
tax advce, tax complance, transfer prcng, R&D and grant
clams, fnancal advsory and transformaton, IT, HR and data
analytcs consultancy and sourcng strateges advce to Unlever
Delotte s a member of the Remuneraton onsultants roup and,
as such, voluntarly operates under the code of conduct n relaton
to executve remuneraton consultng n the UK, whch s avalable
at wwwremuneratonconsultantsgroupcom
wwwremuneratonconsultantsgroupcom
The ommttee s satsfed that the Delotte LLP engagement
partner and team, whch provde remuneraton advce to the
ommttee, do not have connectons wth Unlever NV or Unlever
PL that mght mpar ther ndependence The ommttee
revewed the potental for conflcts of nterest and udged that
there were approprate safeguards aganst such conflcts The
fees pad to Delotte LLP n relaton to advce provded to the
ommttee n the year up to 31 December 2014 were £23,500 Ths
fgure s calculated based on tme spent and expenses ncurred
for the maorty of advce provded, but on occason for specfc
proects a fxed fee may be agreed The ommttee would lke to
thank Delotte for ther assstance throughout 2014
After a thorough ntervew process the ommttee apponted
Tom oslng of Pw to become the ndependent remuneraton
advsor n 2015
Durng the year, the ommttee also sought nput from the
hef Executve Offcer (Paul Polman), the hef Human Resources
Offcer (Doug Balle) and the SVP lobal Head of Reward
(Peter Newhouse) on varous subects ncludng the remuneraton
of senor management No ndvdual Executve Drector was
present when ther own remuneraton was beng dscussed to
ensure a conflct of nterest dd not arse The ommttee also
receved legal and governance advce from the roup Secretary
(Tona Lovell)
LARIFIATION STATEMENT
After publcaton of our Drectors’ Remuneraton Report 2013 the
ommttee ssued a clarfcaton statement on our webste at the
request of The Investment Assocaton (prevously IMA and ABI)
The statement s avalable on our webste The statement
confrms that we wll not make share awards hgher than the
maxmum awards stated n our Polcy for exstng and newly hred
Executve Drectors wthout pror shareholder approval It further
clarfes that awards to newly hred Executve Drectors to buy out
remuneraton tems on leavng the prevous employer as provded
n the new hres polcy wll be done under the SIP onsequently,
under such exceptonal crcumstances, the aggregated SIP
share awards for a newly hred Executve Drector may be hgher
than the maxmum annual award set out n the Remuneraton
Polcy As stated n the Remuneraton Polcy n relaton to new
hres, we wll nform shareholders of any such buyout awards
when announcng the appontment
wwwunlevercom/ara2014/downloads
SHAREHOLDER VOTIN
Unlever remans commtted to ongong shareholder dalogue
and takes an actve nterest n votng outcomes In the event
of a substantal vote aganst a resoluton n relaton to Drectors’
remuneraton, Unlever would seek to understand the reasons
for any such vote and would set out n the followng Annual Report
and Accounts any actons n response to t
The followng table sets out actual votng n respect of our
prevous report
Votng outcome (% of votes) For Aganst
2014 Drectors’ Remuneraton Polcy (2014 AM)(a} PL 9751% 249%
2014 Drectors’ Remuneraton Polcy (2014 AM)(b) NV 9837% 163%
2013 Drectors’ Remuneraton Report
(excludng the Drectors’ Remuneraton Polcy)
(2014 AM)(c) PL 9914% 086%
(a)
7,606,237 votes were wthheld (approxmately 06% of share captal)
(b) 4,188,993 votes were wthheld (approxmately 027% of share captal)
(c) 25,507,949 votes were wthheld (approxmately 20% of share captal)
The Drectors’ Remuneraton Report s not subect to a shareholder
vote n the Netherlands
The Drectors’ Remuneraton Report has been approved by the
Boards and sgned on ther behalf by Tona Lovell, roup Secretary
77Unilever Annual Report and Accounts 2014 Governance