Top 10 Highest Paid CEOs in 2008
August 15, 2009 by Miranda Marquit
Filed under Finance
Executive compensation has been in the news a lot lately. This is not especially surprising development, since big-time CEOs get paid a great deal of money — even when they make poor business decisions that result in catastrophe. And now, CNN Money has a list of the highest paid CEOs of 2008. These CEOs are:
- Stephen Schwarzman, Blackstone Group, $702,440,573
- Lawrence Ellison, Oracle Corp., $556,976,600
- Ray Irani, Occidental Petroleum Corp., $222,639,705
- John Hess, Hess Corp., $159,566,940
- Michael Watford, Ultra Petroleum Corp., $116, 929,392
- Aubrey McClendon, Chesapeake Energy Corp.. $114,286,867
- Bob Simpson, XTO Energy Inc., $103,485,972
- Mark Papa, EOG Resources, Inc., $90,471,784
- Eugene Isenberg, Nabors Industries Ltd., $79,333,079
- Michael Jeffries, Abercrombie & Fitch Co., $71,795,744
Many of these CEOs, though, have their salaries in vested stock options. It’s not all cash (although there certainly is enough cash). Many people were surprised by #10, since Abercrombie had a hard go for retail, and the stock dropped close to 70%.
In the end, though, companies can pay their executives whatever they want. Unless they are getting preferred loans from taxpayers.
Image source: Daylife
Clearly, these guys are not worth this kind of money. The compensation committees on the board of directors need a reality check (or new blood), and should tie compensation to corporate performance. These guys are ripping their shareholders off.
No disagreements there. Shareholders should take where they can, and put pressure to change the compensation being offered.