Highest paid director enjoys nine-fold pay rise

The parent of Zaha Hadid Architects has revealed a jump in pre-tax profit with the highest-paid director enjoying a nine-fold increase in their pay.

The practice’s parent company Zaha Hadid Holdings filed its latest accounts at Companies House this week with the firm seeing pre-tax profit rise 21% to £4.8m on turnover flat at £46.5m for the year to April 2018.

The accounts, which were signed off by Charlotte Philipps, who was appointed to the board last year, also show that highest-paid director, who is not named, picked up just over £819,000 – compared to 87,705 in 2017.

The firm added: “Competition in the UK for architectural contracts is currently very challenging but our global customer spread has mitigated the effect of this on our business.”

Among the overseas schemes the firm is working on include a residential building called the Bora Tower in Mexico City, while it is working on a new airport at Mumbai, India, while it is working on a masterplan for old port in Estonia’s capital, Tallinn.

Last November, the firm hit the headlines when the late architect’s long-time business partner Patrik Schumacher lodged a claim in the High Court against his three fellow executors of Hadid’s £70m will. The three are architectural patron Peter Palumbo, Hadid’s niece Rana and the artist Brian Clarke.

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