Shell boss's £17.2m pay packet shows the madness of incentive plans

Ben van Beurden’s bonanza is a reward for the oil price rise that was outside his controlHere, as sure as spring, comes another row over pay at Shell. Chief executive Ben van Beurden collected €20.1m (£17.2m) last year, a tidy 126% increase on 2017. The only other time he passed €20m was 2014, when he apparently needed an enormous pension top-up and “tax equalisation” handout to ease his arduous journey from London to Shell HQ in The Hague. For practical purpose