(Reuters) - Cyber security company Avast Plc said on Tuesday its new Chief Executive Officer Ondrej Vlcek will indefinitely waive his annual salary and bonus, and instead receive a $1 for his yearly pay.
Avast, which pioneered the "freemium" model in security software by giving away its basic product for free, said Vlcek would get annual equity grants, but will donate his board director's fee of $100,000 a year to charity.
Avast said the initial recipient of Vlcek's director's fee will be UK-based charity Demelza Hospice for Children.
"The board ... is satisfied that he (Vlcek) continues to be appropriately incentivised through existing long term equity-based incentive arrangements and through his 2% shareholding in Avast," Chairman of the Remuneration Committee Ulf Claesson said in a statement.
Vlcek, a Czech national, started at Avast in 1995 as a developer and was part of the team that took the company public. He also led the integration of the consumer business after the company bought AVG in 2016.
Vlcek took over this year from Vince Steckler, the former long-time chief executive of Avast, who helped to develop the cyber security company.
The FTSE 250 company has diversified its revenue in recent years from its best known antivirus product to include services for e-commerce, browsing, advertising and analytics.
(Reporting by Noor Zainab Hussain in Bengaluru; Editing by Bernard Orr)
