Qantas CEO, top executives lose $522,000 in pay for major cyber breach

By Angus Whitley

 

Qantas Airways Ltd. Chief Executive Officer Vanessa Hudson and her top leadership team were docked A$800,000 ($522,000) in pay for a cyberbreach that impacted millions of customers, as the airline attempts to show it’s taking a harder line on accountability and governance.

 

Hudson forfeited A$250,000 in compensation, while the airline’s five executive managers lost a combined A$550,000, Qantas said in its annual report, released Friday. Hudson’s total remuneration still climbed to A$6.31 million for the 12 months ended June, up from A$4.38 million a year earlier. 

 

Qantas detected the cyberattack on June 30, the last day of the financial year, and later found that personal information belonging to 5.7 million customers had been stolen. The board’s swift punishment for Hudson and senior management follows sharp criticism of the carrier’s culture last month from a Federal Court judge in Australia, as well as a corporate governance overhaul last year.

 

“This decision demonstrates our commitment to creating a culture of accountability and ownership,” Qantas Chair John Mullen said in the annual report. Mullen acknowledged that management took immediate action to contain the breach and support customers, but said the pay cuts reflected the seriousness of the incident. 

 

Qantas’s profit in the year ended June jumped 15 per cent to A$2.4 billion.