Hearn's lump sum was quite an imperial payout

pbest@globeandmail.com

It seems former Imperial Oil chief executive officer Tim Hearn is doing okay in retirement. The company's proxy circular, which was filed three months ago, has an interesting morsel buried in a footnote on page 31. It seems Mr. Hearn, who left at the end of March, 2008, took a lump-sum pension payout from the company, thus it does not appear on the document's main compensation chart. Imperial Oil executives can choose to receive their pension payments as a monthly annuity or as a lump sum. But because Mr. Hearn chose to take a lump sum, Imperial Oil cut a cheque for $23.586-million. Mr. Hearn also holds 618,200 share units, which are eligible for exercise as late as 2011, depending on the date they were granted. At year-end, Mr. Hearn's were worth $25.34-million.

R-E-S-P-E-C-T

TD Bank commissioned a poll whose results shouldn't be a surprise to anyone. In a news release from TD entitled R-E-S-P-E-C-T, the bank trumpeted a poll it commissioned from Angus Reid on customer loyalty. "Customers want companies to respect them and stand by them in tough times," the poll concluded. In other words, the bank paid money to find out that customers prefer to be treated properly. No kidding. The survey says respect is as important as knowledge in defining good bank service. In fact, bank customers rated being treated well above receiving freebies, discounts and gift certificates.