THE FORMER chief executive of philanthropic organisation the American Ireland Fund (AIF), Kingsley Aikins, is receiving $500,000 (€385,832) over five years as part of his severance deal with the organisation. Mr Aikins was chief executive of the fund for 17 years.
The payment is disclosed in new documents lodged by the fund with the US tax authorities that confirm Mr Aikins’s successor, Kieran McLoughlin, received almost $500,000 in remuneration from the fund in 2010.
The returns recently filed by the AIF disclose that its chief executive and president, Mr McLoughlin – who took up his post in January 2010 – received $478,460 (€369,210) in 2010 for his work for the organisation. The revelation in 2010 that the total remuneration for Mr Aikins – when he was chief executive – was $923,552 in 2009 became a source of controversy.
The filings also disclose that Mr Aikins’s firm, the Blackrock-based Kingsley Aikins Associates, received $325,000 for consultancy work for the AIF in 2010.
The AIF is part of the Ireland Funds that were established in 1976 by Sir Anthony O’Reilly and US ambassador to Ireland Dan Rooney. Last year, the AIF raised a record $40 million (€28 million) for 200 Irish charities, almost a four-fold increase on 2009. Overall, the AIF has raised $360 million towards supporting social and charitable projects in Ireland.
The documents for 2010 disclose that as part of his $500,000 severance deal, Mr Aikins received $107,969 under that heading in 2010. The payments partly arise from Mr Aikins negotiating a five-year deferred incentive arrangement beginning in 2007; the fund accrued at a rate of $100,000 annually before it was terminated in 2009. The filings state that “the amounts accrued were included in the former chief executive officer’s severance package”.
Since stepping down, the former Leinster rugby player has continued to enjoy a high profile.
Mr McLoughlin has previously described Mr Aikins as a “guru of global philanthropy”.
