There have been lots of stories to mark the departure of Wesfarmers
chief, Michael Chaney for the wild world of banking at the NAB. (Here’s
a typical example from The Melbourne Age.)

But a final directors shareholding notice from Wesfarmers Wednesday
showed that St Michael won’t have any problem financing his move down
the pay scale. He’s a wealthy man from the millions he was paid at
Wesfarmers as the company grew and prospered. That left him with
402,899 Wesfarmers shares, worth more than $15.7 million at the current
price of just over $39, but more importantly, paying more than $560,000
a year in dividends.

St Michael will actually be getting more from his Wesfarmers shares
than he will from chairing the NAB. For example the departing NAB
chairman, Graeme Kraehe was paid $284,000 in base salary and fees and
the value of shares and other benefits took that up to $404,000.

St Michael could afford to chair the NAB for just shares alone! He’s
got more than enough from his Wesfarmers investments (and other
investments in some funds at Gresham, the investment bank half-owned by
Wesfarmers)