Dunbar chief is paid over 660,000 pounds

GEORGE GREENER, chairman and chief executive of Allied Dunbar, the life and pensions company, was paid more than pounds 660,000 last year, writes Paul Durman.

This is believed to make him the second-highest-paid executive in the life insurance industry behind Mick Newmarch, chief executive of the very much larger Prudential Corporation, who received nearly pounds 770,000.

Dr Greener seems to have been paid even more than Martin Broughton, his boss at Allied's owner, BAT Industries. Mr Broughton has just succeeded Sir Patrick Sheehy as chief executive of the giant tobacco and insurance group.

BAT's recently published accounts show that Sir Patrick received pounds 980,679 in 1992, a rise from pounds 638,416 in the previous year. The list of payments to other directors suggests that Mr Broughton received the relatively modest salary of pounds 465,000- pounds 470,000.

Last year was Dr Greener's first full year with Allied Dunbar, having been headhunted from Mars, the confectionery group whose UK operation he ran for five years. Dr Greener, who expresses an interest in Zen Buddhism, was recruited for his marketing skills. Allied Dunbar made a pre- tax profit of pounds 123m last year, only slightly better than in 1991.

Salaries over pounds 500,000 are rare among insurers, which pay senior managers more modestly than the largest companies in which they invest. Standard Life, the largest mutual life insurer, paid its managing director pounds 273,128 last year. General Accident, a leading listed insurer, paid Nelson Robertson pounds 237,822.