Royal Mail IT chief gets £1m pay cheque

Royal Mail's IT chief has earned more than £1m in salary and bonuses as a reward for his role in helping the once loss-making group post annual record profits of £537m.

Group CIO David Burden joined the company in 2002 and was appointed as an executive director on Royal Mail's board last July. The company's annual report out today shows his salary and bonus for the last year total £255,000.

In addition, Burden has accrued £750,000 of bonuses as part of Royal Mail's long-term incentive plan which links executive bonuses to the annual performance of the company. The plan triggered a higher payout when profits passed the £400m mark.

It is a remarkable turnaround for Royal Mail, which is now making more than £2m per day in profits compared with daily losses of £1.5m per day three years ago. The group's CEO Adam Crozier also received a £2.2m bonus and postal workers will each get a bonus of £1,074 under the reward scheme.

In an interview with silicon.com last year Burden revealed Royal Mail had slashed its IT bill in half since he joined the company three years ago.