Rentokil Initial, the struggling pest control, postal and cleaning group, has completed a management purge with the replacement of finance director Andrew Macfarlane.
His departure comes eight months after three former ICI executives were parachuted into key boardroom positions in an effort to turn around the company's fortunes.
The new directors — John McAdam as chairman, Alan Brown as chief executive and Andy Ransom as head of corporate development — were hired with controversial pay deals. The packages are together worth up to £100m if they manage to triple Rentokil's share price in five years.
Macfarlane's replacement Michael Murray is expected to be offered a pay deal in line with his fellow directors.
Murray was previously finance director at Global Solutions, a British-based private equity-owned prison security business. He is believed to have made a considerable sum when the business was sold last year to G4S, the Anglo-Danish security group formerly known as Group 4 Securicor.
News of Macfarlane's departure comes a month after Rentokil raised £125m from the issue of new bonds to repair the company's balance sheet.
In August Rentokil was forced to slash its half-year dividend to conserve cash. Six-month profits had more than halved to £39.3m and Brown told investors that further job cuts were inevitable.
Brown has been highly critical of the previous management at Rentokil, admitting he had been surprised by the "stench" beneath some of the rocks he lifted when he first arrived.