The chief marketing officers of Dell, Coca-Cola and Time Warner are among the best paid marketing executives in the U.S., all earning more than $6 million in 2016, according to a report.
The highest paid is Jonathan Hargis, executive vice-president and CMO at Spectrum, the brand name of telecommunications company Charter Communications. He took home $15 million in 2016, according to a ranking compiled by the Equilar consultancy.
Dell executive vice-president, marketing and corporate development Jeremy Burton came second, with his compensation reaching $13.4 million in 2016. He was followed by Rene Bonvanie, the CMO of Palo Alto Networks, who took home $13.1 million.
Executives from Electronic Arts, Autodesk and Marriott also made the top 10, each making more than $5 million.
Equilar analyzed the proxy statements of all U.S.-based or listed public companies with a turnover of more than $500 million in fiscal year 2016. Figures included salary, bonus, stock and options awards, and other compensation benefits.
Chief executives at the top-paying companies tended to make at least twice as much as their CMOs, with Charter Communications CEO Thomas Rutledge making $98.5 million, more than six times his most senior marketer Hargis. Meanwhile, Time Warner CEO Jeffrey Bewkes made $36.2 million, nearly five times the salary of CMO Gary Ginsberg, who earned $6.8 million.
Some of the high salaries are due to payouts from multi-year incentive plans, Equilar noted, so the ranking of executives' pay may change in future years.
Marketers' pay appears to be increasing at the largest U.S. companies, according to the report. There were 190 CMOs or other top marketing executives listed as among the five highest-paid employees noted in proxy statements last year, a number that has grown since 2012 when 74 were noted.
The average CMO on the list made $1.3 million in 2016, up from $1 million in 2012. Senior women's pay in 2016 reached $1.6 million, while men's was $1.2 million. However, only 18 percent of top-level CMOs were women.
"Overall, there was a 157 percent increase in the number of marketing executives named as top five highest-paid officers across the study period. This clearly shows that companies are putting greater emphasis on marketing expertise as a critical role within the C-suite," Equilar said in an online statement.
Here are the ten highest-paid marketers for fiscal year 2016 according to Equilar:
1 Charter Communications - Jonathan Hargis $15,027,148
2 Dell Technologies - Jeremy Burton $13,355,747
3 Palo Alto Networks - Rene Bonvanie $13,114,413
4 Coca Cola Co- Marcos De Quinto (since retired) $7,635,055
5 Time Warner - Gary Ginsberg $6,862,983
6 Electronic Arts - Christopher Bruzzo $5,728,077
7 Marriott International - Stephanie Linnartz $5,183,745
8 Autodesk - Andrew Anagnost (now president and CEO) $5,034,940
9 Chipotle Mexican Grill - Mark Crumpacker $4,900,736
10 CSX Corp - Fredrik Eliasson (now president) $4,696,311