the 10 highest paid ceos on record
TRANSCRIPT
Notes on Executive Pay
All data reflects 2014 compensation.
Compensation includes salary, value of stock and option awards, and non-equity incentive compensation. When computing size of compensation, the company’s annual net income for 2014 is used.
CEOs who were on their first year on the job were not included. The first year often includes heavy stock and option compensation that will not continue for the CEO’s tenure.
Compensation figures come from the AFL-CIO database on Executive Pay. Company metrics come from Yahoo! Finance and YCharts. All data regarding company performance is on an annualized basis starting when the CEO took over.
10. Josh Sapan,AMC Networks
• Compensation: $40 million
• Stock returns: 17% per year
• Revenue growth: 15% per year
• Net income growth: 25% per
year
• Compensation as % of net
income: 15.34%
Sapan’s numbers above are
somewhat skewed: Though he has
been CEO since 1995, AMC
Networks has only been publicly
traded since June of 2011.
Photo: AMC Networks
9. Leonard
Schleifer, Regeneron
Pharmaceuticals
• Compensation: $42 million
• Stock returns: 14% per year
• Revenue growth: 30% per year
• Net income growth: 53% per
year (since 2004)
• Compensation as % of net
income: 12.07%
Dr. Schleifer founded
Regeneron in 1988 and
has led the company ever
since.
8. Marissa Mayer, Yahoo!
• Compensation: $42 million
• Stock returns: 42% per year
• Revenue growth: (2%) per year
• Net income growth: 24% per
year
• Compensation as % of net
income: 0.55%
Mayer is attempting to turn around
Yahoo! with a focus on video and
social media. The purchase of
Tumblr was a cornerstone of the
strategy.
7. Jay Brown, MBIA
• Compensation: $44 million
• Stock returns: (4%) per year
• Revenue growth: (19%) per
year
• Net income growth: (2%) per
year
• Compensation as % of net
income: 7.73%
This is Brown’s second
stint as CEO of MBIA. He
was brought back during
the onslaught of the Great
Recession. At the time, the
company had major
exposure to mortgage-
backed securities.
6. Philippe
Dauman,Viacom
• Compensation: $44 million
• Stock returns: 6% per year
• Revenue growth: 4% per year
• Net income growth: 4% per
year
• Compensation as % of net
income: 1.84%
Dauman has run Viacom since it
became a public company. It
owns many popular networks,
including MTV, SPIKE,
Nickelodeon, and Comedy
Central.
Photo: Viacom.
5. Bob Iger,Disney
• Compensation: $46 million
• Stock returns: 17% per year
• Revenue growth: 5% per year
• Net income growth: 12% per
year
• Compensation as % of net
income: 0.61%
Iger has been at the helm of Disney
since 2005. Over that time frame,
the company has seen tremendous
growth in its stock, with a focus on
international expansion.
4. Les Moonves,CBS
• Compensation: $57 million
• Stock returns: 12% per year
• Revenue growth: 0% per year
• Net income growth: 6% per
year
• Salary as % of net income:
1.93%
Moonves has led CBS since its
split with Viacom in late 2005. He
actually tried his hand at acting
before becoming a media
executive.
Photo: David Shankbone via Wikimedia
Commons.
3. Jon
Feltheimer,Lions Gate
• Compensation: $64 million
• Stock returns: 19% per year
• Revenue growth: 18% per year
• Net income growth: 43% per
year
• Compensation as % of net
income: 35.16%
Feltheimer has been calling the
shots at Lions Gate since 2000.
During that time frame, the
company’s popular hits include
Hunger Games and Breaking Bad.Photo: Lions Gate
2. Mario Gabelli,GAMCO
• Compensation: $89 million
• Stock returns: 11% per year
• Revenue growth: 7% per year
• Net income growth: 9% per
year
• Salary as % of net income:
81.35%
Gabelli founded GAMCO in 1977.
Today, he earns $0 in salary and
has no stock options or awards.
Instead, he’s paid management-
fee-based compensation.
1. David Zaslav,Discovery
Communications
• Compensation: $156 million
• Stock returns: 16% per year
• Revenue growth: 12% per year
• Net income growth: 49% per
year
• Compensation as % of net
income: 13.70%
Zaslav has run Discovery since
early 2007. He has expanded the
company’s reach with the
networks TLC and OWN.
Photo: Discovery Communications
• CEOs of media companies make up half of the high-paid
execs!
• That’s interesting, because if there’s any industry ripe for
disruption, it’s media.
In fact, we believe that there are three companies that are
set to dominate the new age of television and movies.
Some of them have already been mentioned here. To find
out which ones, continue on to the next slide.
