Alliance Trust's chief Garrett-Cox earns more than £1m

Katherine Garrett-Cox, the chief executive of Alliance Trust, the fund-management business, pocketed almost £1.1m in pay and benefits last year.

Ms Garret-Cox, 45, took home a salary of just over £425,000 and a bonus of £525,000 after the company she runs improved its performance during 2012.

Including benefits such as a car allowance, her entire package reached £1,098,284 compared with £1,034,175 in 2011.

Alliance Trust raised its full-year dividend by 7 per cent to 9.63p as it reported total shareholder returns of 12.4 per cent last year.

Ms Garrett-Cox said she was confident she had seen off the shareholder revolts that have dogged recent AGMs. However, she also warned that the Footsie faces "significant roadblocks" over the next few months despite her company posting its strongest start to a year for two decades.

She said that headwinds such as Europe threatened to throw the market off course.