Weir's ?1.2m put her in line of fire

Helen Weir, finance director of Kingfisher, became the FTSE 100's highest paid woman in 2002 - but it will not have been an experience she recalls with much enjoyment.

Last year the 40-year-old was the only woman director of a top company to crack the £1m mark in total remuneration. But her place alongside 189 men in the millionaires' club was the result of a hefty £334,00 relocation allowance benefit paid by the company.

The allowance overshadowed her base salary of £299,000. However, bonuses of £235,000, the award of more than 250,000 share options valued at £62,000, and an additional bonus under an "incentive growth plan" of £297,000 took her total remuneration for the year to £1.27m. Kingfisher's annual report also notes that Mrs Weir's salary included £31,600 in maternity pay for time away during the birth of her third child.

The £334,000 relocation allowance created a storm of controversy when it was revealed that the "relocation" was for a move of some 40 miles, from a village in Hampshire to her new house in Buckinghamshire. Mrs Weir's new home is still a long commute from her central London office. The payment led to protests at Kingfisher's annual meeting in June, with one shareholder suggesting that the benefit be refunded to the company.

Francis Mackay, Kingfisher's chairman, robustly defended the relocation payment. "None of the money went into Mrs Weir's pocket," he told shareholders. "Half of it went to the taxman and the other half went to lawyers, estate agents and Pickfords."

However, the reaction stung Kingfisher into reducing the employment contracts of Mrs Weir and two other executives, from two-year rolling contracts to terms of just 12 months.

The hostile reception and negative headlines must have come as a surprise for Mrs Weir, 40, who had managed to maintain a low profile, in spite of being one of the few women in the UK to serve at the executive level on the board of a leading public company.

Her promotion to finance director came in October 2000, after her success in the same role at B&Q, which formed the core of Kingfisher's operations. Her previous career includes a senior post at the management consultancy firm McKinsey, and a spell at Unilever. Mrs Weir also serves as a non-executive director of the UK Chambre de Commerce Francaise, and on the board of technology training consultancy QA plc.