Admiral CEO to give employees £7m parting gift

17th Mar 2016 14:08

(ShareCast News) - Admiral chief executive Henry Engelhardt, who is due to retire in May, will give away a £1,000 parting gift to every full time worker as a thank you for helping to turn the business around.Engelhardt and his wife Diane will give the cash gift - which will set them back £7m - to all members of staff with at least a year's service, while all other staff will receive £500.The couple has an equity stake of around 11% in the company, which is worth more than £500m.Engelhardt said: "Saying thank you to all the Admiral staff who work so hard every day to make Admiral great is the most important thing we can do."We are making this gift in recognition of the hard work and team spirit that has underpinned Admiral's success as we've grown from a start-up with value of £0 to a FTSE 100 company with a value of £5bn today."Chicago-born Engelhardt, who will be replaced by chief operating officer David Stevens, co-founded the Cardiff-based insurance business back in 1993.He has a reputation for being quite a character, having established a Ministry of Fun dedicated to organising weekly social activities for staff. It's also said he greets each new employee personally with a piece of a jigsaw puzzle to show they're all part of the team.