Dan Daviau of Canaccord Genuity Group.
Most executives at Canaccord Genuity Group Inc. took material pay cuts in fiscal 2016 after the firm posted its steepest annual loss since going public.
Chief executive officer Dan Daviau made $2.3-million for the year that ended on March 31, 2016, according to a regulatory filing on Friday. The previous year, he pulled in $11.7-million as an investment banker, among the highest pay packets ever doled out to a Canaccord executive.
Mr. Daviau, who became CEO in October, 2015, was paid a salary of $694,000, granted $517,000 in stock units and earned a bonus of $1.1-million.
Mr. Daviau's pay was significantly lower than it could have been. Earlier this month, he made the highly unusual move of returning 1.5 million in share units, worth in the region of $8.3-million. The stock, which was due to vest over five years, was granted to him when he was named CEO. Pat Burke, president of Canaccord Genuity (Canada), also returned stock units, issued to him when he joined Canaccord last year.
"It didn't feel right to me, and it didn't feel right to Pat, to take those share awards given the nature of the year," Mr. Daviau told The Globe and Mail earlier in the month.
Last year, Canaccord booked a $359-million loss, largely the result of a non-cash goodwill writedown.
David Kassie, the firm's executive chair and interim CEO last year for a few months, saw his pay fall to $1.2-million from $3-million. Chief financial officer Bradley Kotush and Jeffrey Barlow, president of Canaccord Genuity Inc., also took pay reductions.
Canaccord's highest earning executive in fiscal 2016 was Alexis de Rosnay, head of the U.K. capital markets business. He made just over $4-million, up from $3.1-million. At one point last year, Mr. de Rosnay was in the running for the CEO job, which became vacant after the sudden death of Paul Reynolds in April, 2015. The majority of Mr. de Rosnay's 2016 remuneration was from $2.4-million in share units that were granted to him after Mr. Daviau was named CEO and he was promoted to global head of investment banking. The stock will vest over five years.
Canaccord also announced on Friday that two of its independent board members – Dennis Miller and Bill Eeuwes – will not be standing for re-election. The firm says the departures are related to the firm's ongoing cost-cutting measures. Mr. Miller and Mr. Eeuwes made a combined $321,000 for serving on the board in fiscal 2016.