Top-paid CEOs: Steve Jobs drops from No. 1 to No. 120
Having topped Forbes' list of the U.S.'s highest-paid CEOs last year with a total compensation of $646 million — thanks almost entirely to restricted stock grants that vested in 2006 — Apple's (AAPL) $1-a-year CEO dropped to No. 120 this year. Total 2007 compensation: a mere $14.6 million.
Steve Jobs doesn't even make the magazine's list of the top 10 highest-paid tech CEOs. Oracle's (ORCL) Larry Ellison, America's highest-paid CEO, is also No. 1 on the tech list (total 2007 compensation: $192.9 million).
Among tech CEOs, Jobs came in at No. 11, despite the fact that his company is one of the most efficient in terms of return on investment, delivering 99.3% in fiscal year 2007, second only to MEMC (126.1%).
You can page slowly through pictures of the top 12 technology CEOs at Forbes.com (link), or take them in at a glance below:
- Larry Ellison, Oracle: $192.9 million
- Nabeeb Gareel, MEMC Electronic Materials: $79.6 million
- John Chambers, Cisco: $54.8 million
- Mark Hurd, HP: $27.6 million
- Jen-Hsun Huang, NVIDIA: $24.6 million
- Samual Palmisano, IBM: $24.3 million
- Wendell Weeks, Corning: $22.6 million
- Joseph Tucci, EMC: $20 million
- William Sullivan, Agilent: $17.4 million
- Paul Otellini, Intel: $16.3 million
- Steve Jobs, Apple: $14.6 million
- Jonathan Schwartz, Sun: $13.5 million
Methodology: "Forbes compiled the list by calculating the overall compensation for the past year for executives, factoring in salary, cash bonuses, vested stock grants, stock gains and exercised stock options."
I think that if you hold stock in a company who's CEO is on this list you may have made a bad investment. I haven't the time on a Sunday morning to crunch the numbers, but how much value did each of these CEOs bring to the shareholder, and does their pay match this?
A quick look at the numbers in the column makes me think that Steve Jobs was a bargain this year, and a disaster last year. Larry Ellison looks like a disaster, heck anyone in the top 12 looks like a probable disaster, and I would hesitate to buy stock in their companies.
Executive compensation appears to (in some companies) be out of control. It needs to be based on the value that the executive brings to his bosses, the stock holders, in a market based approach.
At least that's how I see it. Mind you, I'd love to have Larry Ellison's salary .
So that's a bad thing that he gets paid so little??? I don't think so. I don't like the idea of owning stock where the CEO gets paid 192 million a year (ORACLE) – it makes me wonder why they can't find anything better to do with that money. Well done APPLE!
Please read correctly before you comment, the list shows
"top 12 technology CEOs" not over the whole range, where is was No 120.
Keep up the good work Steve, its the coming years where you will really shine, ie after apple hits $1000
Hey Fortune, how about doing a list of CEO pay over 5 years instead of just one? That along with shareholder returns over that span might actually show which CEO's are earning their pay.
Your headline says '120' instead of '12'
ex ped: Jobs is No. 120 in the list that includes all U.S. CEOs and No. 11 in the list of tech CEOs.
Here's from a list of top CEO compensation 2007:
2. John Thain, Merrill Lynch & Co., $83.1 million
6. Lloyd Blankfein, Goldman Sachs Group Inc., $53.9 million
9. John Mack, Morgan Stanley, $41.7 million
Merrill Lynch was a bailout disguised as a buyout, the other two were bailout companies. Money well spent.