Yahoo Finance Healthcare boss earns $700,000 in one day after abruptly quitting
A top executive at a leading Covid vaccine manufacturer earned $700,000 in just one day after he quit abruptly amid an investigation at his former employer.
Jorge Gomez took over as chief financial officer at Moderna on Monday but stepped down from the post a day later after his previous employer, Dentsply Sirona, announced it had launched an internal investigation into financial reporting.
Dentsply disclosed that it had been made aware of “allegations regarding certain financial reporting matters” by current and former employees.
As part of the investigation, which kicked off in March, its audit and financial committees are looking into the incentives used to sell products to distributors and how they were disclosed.
It is also scrutinising allegations that certain former and current members of senior management directed the use of incentives to achieve executive compensation targets.
Mr Gomez was not referred to in the filing, and Dentsply had previously said his “decision to resign is not the result of any dispute or disagreement with the company, the company’s management or the board of directors… on any matter relating to the company’s operations, policies or practices”.
Following his resignation which was announced on Wednesday, Mr Gomez will be entitled to take home one year’s salary, equal to around $700,000 (£570,000).
Moderna said he had forfeited his signing bonus, bonus eligibility and eligibility for new hire equity awards.
He had been set to receive a new hire award totalling $4m, a signing bonus of $500,000, as well as share awards worth between $3m and $4m in future years.
The move comes as pharmaceutical companies find themselves at the centre of a row over large pay awards.
Last week almost 40pc of shareholders at GlaxoSmithKline’s annual general meeting voted against its pay plans.
Meanwhile, bosses at Moderna have been awarded significant pay rises since the start of the pandemic, with chief executive Stéphane Bancel taking home around $18.2m last year, a 41pc increase on the prior year.
A large portion of that was in bonuses, with his salary at almost $1m. Mr Gomez was due to earn a higher salary than his predecessor.
Shares in Moderna are still around 600pc higher than they were before the pandemic, although the stock has dropped back since last September as more Western countries scale back their Covid booster jab programmes to focus on vulnerable groups.
