Wolfson chairman takes home £188k as he offloads shares

Michael Ruettgers parted with 120,683 shares at 155.44p each, taking his holding down from 0.5 per cent to 0.4 per cent.

Ruettgers took over as Wolfson’s chairman in January 2008 after a career at New York-listed computing giant EMC, where he served as chief executive between 1992 and 2001 before becoming executive chairman and finally chairman until 2005.

News of Ruettgers’ share sale came as Wolfson appointed John Grant – a former executive deputy chairman of Jaguar Cars, while the marque was owned by Ford – as a non-executive director. Grant also sits on the board of TV set-top box maker Pace.

Ruettgers said: “We are delighted to appoint someone of John’s standing and, with his extensive operational and financial management experience, John will add complementary skills and expertise to the existing board and audit committee of Wolfson.”

Last week, one of Wolfson’s non-executive directors bought his third batch of shares in the company since April. Glenn Collinson, who joined the board in 2008, spent £30,359 buying 19,850 shares at just over 152.9p each, having previous bought 40,000 shares in April and a further 38,000 in June.

Collinson’s latest spending spree increased his stake in the firm to 0.1 per cent.

In 1998, Collinson was one of the founders of Cambridge Silicon Radio, guiding the bluetooth specialist through to its floatation in 2004.

Wolfson’s share price has fallen from a 52-week high of 312p in February, plunging in June and July following a pair of profit warnings as electronics giants delayed the launch of new gadgets due to the slowdown in consumer spending.

Wolfson shares closed down 0.75p last night at 159.25p.