We've known for some time that Apple had another Englishman joining at senior level but it's only just been made generally known on what terms. The new head of Apple retail is gaining $56 million worth of restricted stock.
We've known is early in the year that John Browett was joining Apple to take charge of the retail operations. He was the former head of Dixons Retail and before that Tesco's online operations. So certainly experienced and knows what he's doing: he's also been notably successful in those two jobs.
However, his stock award will raise some eyebrows in his native UK:
John Browett, the former Dixons boss poached by Apple, will receive a $56m (£36m) "golden hello" for taking charge of the tech giant's retail arm.
As is common for senior Apple execs these are not options or direct stock awards but restricted stock. It is felt that this best aligns the interests of the executive and the firm. There's a five year vesting period on this stock.
The reason that this might raise some eyebrows is because this level of reward for a corporate executive is still quite uncommon here. Most certainly it is uncommon for anyone not specifically the CEO. But that's fine of course, if the Apple corporation thinks he's worth that to them then good luck to all involved.
One thing is does rather do though is light a small fire under a general contention of the British left. While corporate rewards aren't quite the size of those available in the US they are larger than in other careers in the UK: and larger than they have been historically. On the one side those paying (and receiving) large sums say there is an international market in executive talent and thus the amounts paid should be determined by that international market.
Various left wing critiques of that stance start with the idea that there isn't in fact much of an international market for executives. At which point, an Englishman being hired to run the global retail operations of a US corporation, well, it's something of a blow to that argument really.
