BII chief says top-earning staff join for ‘the mission’ not high pay

The head of British International Investment has defended a leap in the number of top earners at the organization, arguing they join to “make a difference to people’s lives” — and could easily earn more in the City of London. Nick O’Donohoe also said salaries have never “been significantly out of whack” with other European development finance institutions and multilateral development banks, after a “benchmarking process” every three years. BII’s latest annual accounts show 75 of its staff members earned more than £250,000 (around $323,000) in 2023, an increase from 57 in 2022, of which 35 took home in excess of £300,000 last year, compared with 30 the year before. Over those 12 months, the organization expanded strikingly from 421 to 506 employees — which means the proportion earning above £250,000 rose from 13.5% to 14.8%. There was a fall in the share of £300,000-plus earners, from 7.1% to 6.9%. However, five people earned more than £400,000 in 2023, up from just one, of which one earned above £450,000. BII is owned by the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office, which funds it with capital grants that peaked at almost £1 billion in 2019-2020. They fell sharply as part of the U.K.’s harsh aid cuts, but have bounced back to £420 million in 2024-2025. O’Donohoe, in a wide-ranging interview with Devex to mark his departure after seven years as chief executive, said BII’s growth inevitably involved “a significant amount of hiring at the more senior level, so they typically have higher salary levels.” The majority of the 75 top-earners are at “director and managing director level,” with “15 to 20 years’ experience,” working in 11 offices around the world, he said. “We are responsible for £10 billion of taxpayers’ money and it has to be invested properly. There are certain skills that are needed to do that — and, I suppose, a price for those with that skill set,” he said. O’Donohoe added: “Almost everybody here could earn more money somewhere else in the city, but they come here because they care about the mission. “Why do people come to work at BII? They come to work at BII because they want to wake up in the morning, come to work, and feel like they are making a difference to people's lives. That is what motivates people to join, it's what keeps people here when they're here. “If you work for any large financial institution, that's quite a rare thing. I’ve had a wonderful career working for financial institutions, but it's a different feeling you get, it's a different type of reward — and increasingly, people, particularly young people, put a really high value on that.” The departing CEO said his seven years at the helm have seen BII transformed from a minor “funder of funds” to holding an investment portfolio of 1,600 companies in 60 countries. O’Donohoe’s salary rose from £423,735 in 2022 to £449,421 last year, the accounts show.