Ex-Webvan CEO to Get $375,000 Annually

Webvan Group Inc. will pay former CEO George T. Shaheen $375,000 annually for the rest of his life, despite the online grocer’s shaky financial condition.

Shaheen, 56, qualified for the lucrative benefits after resigning from the struggling Foster City, Calif., company April 13, Webvan spokesman Bud Grebey said.

When Webvan lured Shaheen away from his $4 million-per-year job running Andersen Consulting, the company promised to provide him with a comfortable retirement if he remained with the online grocer through June 30, 2000.

Keeping Shaheen on the payroll won’t hurt Webvan, Grebey said, because the company expects to remain solvent and turn a profit by the second half of next year.

Webvan’s shares, which hit an all-time high of $34 in late 1999, dipped 2 cents to close at 14 cents on Nasdaq.