The former chairman and chief executive of troubled French engineering group Alstom, Pierre Bilger, has agreed to forgo a €4.1m (£2.87m) severance package because he said did not want to be a "cause for scandal among the 100,000 Alstom employees whom I had the honour to direct for 12 years, nor among shareholders who trusted me from 1998".
As the Independent points out, unlike his British counterparts, who have felt no qualms when walking away with millions of pounds after presiding over spectacular corporate collapses, M. Bilger clearly has a conscience.