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Nesta CEO Jonathan Kestenbaum doing just fine, thank you

Date: 02/07/2010

The Cabinet Office has just published a list of the salaries of ‘everyone working in Non Departmental Public Bodies, also known as quangos, who earns more than £150,000’. There are 333 of them, and at No 216 is Jonathan Kestenbaum, CEO of NESTA.

He earns a mere £168k according to the Nesta 2008/9 Annual Report - though he actually benefits to the tune of £218k if his £20k pension and £30k bonus are added on.

Interestingly, Nesta states on its website: ‘Our endowment status means we operate at no cost to the UK taxpayer.’

Then why is Jonathan Kestenbaum on the Cabinet Office rich list?

It’s also notable from the 2008/9 Annual report that Nesta had an income of £30m (including £15m of lottery funding) and spent £23m on ‘direct support of objectives’ - yet only £358k came from ‘proceeds from sale of investments in companies’. In other words, Nesta is still many miles away from earning its keep, after nearly ten years of operation.

In terms of return on investment - the criterion Nesta used to use to dismiss so many invention projects - Nesta’s ‘mission to make the UK more innovative’ isn’t working out too well. But never mind - at least its senior managers continue to keep their heads above water.

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