Biggest Bonuses of the Decade
Executive compensation - particularly bonuses - has been the source of much fury both on Capitol Hill and on Main Street. The Obama administration has also set it sights on these pay packages, most recently by cracking down on executive compensation at bailed-out firms.
Given the attention being paid to multi-million dollar paydays, CNBC.com enlisted the help of Equilar, an executive compensation research firm, to find out which executives received the most massive bonus payouts of the decade.
By Brooke Sopelsa
Posted 29 Oct 2009
Methodology:
Equilar looked at the named executive officers among the Russell 3000 companies that received a bonus over the last 10 years. All values were taken from each company’s proxy statement. Only values included in the bonus column of the summary compensation table were considered. The firm excluded any equity awards not included in the bonus column along with cash distributions associated with ownership in the company.
The following slideshow represents the top ten bonus recipients. Executives who received multiple record bonuses were ranked by their largest bonus amount, and their other record bonuses were mentioned at the bottom of the slide.
10. (Tied) Gary D. Cohn
Bonus: $26,743,500
Year: 2006
Company: Goldman Sachs
Title: President & COO
Current Position @ Company: President & COO
Other record bonuses: Mr. Cohn also received a bonus of $26,585,474 in 2007.
10. (Tied) Jon Winkelried
Bonus: $26,743,500
Year: 2006
Company: Goldman Sachs
Title: President & COO
Current Position @ Company: Mr. Winkelried retired in 2009.
Other record bonuses: Mr. Winkelried also received a bonus of $26,585,474 in 2007.
9. Lloyd C. Blankfein
Bonus: $27,243,500
Year: 2006
Company: Goldman Sachs
Title: Chairman & CEO
Current Position @ Company: Chairman & CEO
Other record bonuses: Mr. Blankfein also received a bonus in 2007 of $26,985,474.
8. Sanford I. Weill
Bonus: $29,000,000
Year: 2003
Company: Citigroup
Title: Chairman
Current Position @ Company: Mr. Weill retired in 2006.
7. Sheldon G. Adelson
Bonus: $30,000,000
Year: 2004
Company: Las Vegas Sands
Title: Chairman, CEO & Treasurer
Current Position @ Company: Chairman, CEO & Treasurer
6. Robert I. Toll
Bonus: $30,402,451
Year: 2004
Company: Toll Brothers
Title: Chairman & CEO
Current Position @ Company: Chairman & CEO
Other record bonuses: Mr. Toll received a bonus of $27.3 million in 2005 paid in both cash and stock.
5. Lawrence J. Lasser
Bonus: $33,000,000
Year: 2000
Company: Marsh & McLennan Companies
Title: President, Putnam Investments
Current Position @ Company: Mr. Lasser left the company in 2003.
Other record bonuses: Mr. Lasser received a bonus of $26 million in 1999.
4. Milan Panic
Bonus: $33,550,000
Year: 2002
Company: Valeant Pharmaceuticals International
Title: Chairman & CEO
Current Position @ Company: Mr. Panic left the company in 2002.
3. Eugene M. Isenberg
Bonus: $33,600,000
Year: 2008
Company: Nabors Industries
Title: Chairman & CEO
Current Position @ Company: Chairman & CEO
Other record bonuses: Mr. Isenberg received bonuses of $50.9 and $43.2 million in 2007 and 2006, of which he received $22.5 and $22 million in cash, respectively.
2. Bob R. Simpson
Bonus: $35,500,000
Year: 2007
Company: XTO Energy
Title: Chairman & CEO
Current position @ company: Chairman
Other record bonuses: Mr. Simpson received a $31 million bonus in 2005 and 2006, and a $30 million bonus in 2008.
1. Steve Jobs
Bonus: $43,511,534
Year: 2001
Company: Apple
Title: CEO
Current Position @ Company: CEO