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Tufan Erginbilgic, chief executive of British defense and aerospace group Rolls-Royce, is poised to receive over £100 million, as the value of the shares he was granted has surpassed that amount following a sharp rally in the company’s stock.
The Turkish-born British executive joined the engineering group at the start of 2023, when its stock traded at just 91 pence. As of Dec. 30, shares had risen to 1,146.09 pence, valuing the 9.3 million-share award he received upon arrival at approximately £106.59 million ($143.78 million).
The share package was granted as part of his onboarding terms and is set to vest in two stages, in 2027 and 2028, to ensure long-term alignment with company performance.
Erginbilgic took over as chief executive as Rolls-Royce was still recovering from financial distress triggered by the global aviation shutdown in 2020.
Under his predecessor, the company had launched a £2 billion emergency funding effort and carried out extensive job reductions.
Upon taking the helm, Erginbilgic characterized the company as "a burning platform" and criticized its prior management practices.
He implemented sweeping cost-cutting measures, exited underperforming contracts, negotiated more favorable supplier terms, and focused on reducing debt.
The recovery was further supported by a broader resurgence in the aviation market, a key revenue source for Rolls-Royce.
In 2023, Erginbilgic received £13.6 million in total compensation, the third-highest among executives of companies on the British stock benchmark FTSE 100 index, including a £7.5 million share award granted to offset income forfeited from his previous role at the private equity firm Global Infrastructure Partners.
Rolls-Royce defended the structure at the time, noting that "private equity remuneration arrangements" differ significantly from those of listed firms. His total pay package declined to £4.1 million in 2024.
The company has set an ambitious target of raising operating profit to between £2.5 billion and £2.8 billion by 2027.
The structure of Erginbilgic’s incentive package ties his potential payout to the achievement of such long-term financial goals.
In 2025, Rolls-Royce emerged as one of the top performers on the FTSE 100 index, with its stock nearly doubling and market capitalization reaching £96.29 billion.
As part of a wider effort to share gains with employees, Rolls-Royce announced it would distribute £700 worth of shares to each of its 42,000 staff in 2024.
Tufan Erginbilgic is a Turkish-born British executive with a background in both the energy and finance sectors.
Before joining Rolls-Royce, he spent over two decades at BP, where he held several senior roles, including head of the company’s downstream business from 2014 to 2020. During his tenure, he was credited with enhancing profitability and operational efficiency across refining, marketing, and petrochemicals.
Erginbilgic holds a bachelor’s degree in engineering from Istanbul Technical University, a master’s in engineering from Ohio State University, and an MBA from the University of Michigan. He is also a chartered engineer and a fellow of the Energy Institute.
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