From: lessgovt@gmail.com   
      
   Meet the CEOs Who Pull In More Than $100 Million a Year   
   By Theo Francis, July 4, 2023, WSJ   
      
   The highest-paid CEOs aren’t always the ones running the biggest companies.    
   The chief executives of Hertz, Peloton and Pinterest all earned more than $100   
   million in 2022, topping almost every CEO in the S&P 500 including Apple’s   
   Tim Cook, who made $   
   99 million. Also on that list: The man who runs CS Disco, a cloud-services   
   provider that caters to attorneys and has a market capitalization of about   
   $500 million.    
      
   Six of the 10 highest-paid CEOs last year ran companies that weren’t in the   
   S&P 500, according to C-Suite Comp, an executive-pay-data and analytics   
   company. The S&P 500 comprises most of the biggest U.S. publicly traded   
   companies.   
      
   Stephen Schwarzman of private-equity giant Blackstone earned the biggest pay   
   package overall, at $253 million. Blackstone, larger than many S&P 500   
   companies at a market capitalization of more than $100 billion, has a   
   corporate structure similar to dual    
   share-class setups that until recently have kept other companies out of the   
   index.    
      
   Schwarzman edged out Sundar Pichai, who runs Google parent Alphabet and   
   received a pay package of $226 million—a total that put Pichai atop The Wall   
   Street Journal’s annual CEO pay survey earlier this year. Pichai was   
   followed in the earlier survey    
   by Live Nation’s Michael Rapino, at $139 million.   
      
   Some executives in C-Suite Comp’s top-paid list, such as the leaders of   
   Pinterest and Hertz, wouldn’t make the Journal’s annual pay ranking   
   because those CEOs started during the year. The Journal’s analysis only   
   ranks CEOs who served the full    
   year.   
      
   Median pay for CEOs of S&P 500 companies slipped to $14.5 million last year,   
   from $14.7 million the year before.    
      
   More broadly, 9 CEOs made more than $100 million in 2022, of nearly 4,000   
   publicly traded U.S. companies in C-Suite Comp’s analysis. That is down from   
   more than 20 a year earlier, as equity awards slimmed down, the firm said.    
      
   The bulk of CEO pay usually consists of restricted stock or options, the value   
   of which can fluctuate. Many equity awards often only vest—becoming fully   
   the executive’s property—if certain performance targets are met, or if the   
   executive remains    
   employed for a specified period.   
      
   For Schwarzman, Blackstone’s co-founder, about $190 million of his pay came   
   in the form of carried interest and incentive-fee allocations. Carried   
   interest refers to a cut of profit above a target that some investment   
   managers receive. A further $58.8    
   million consisted of shares in real-estate investment trusts that Blackstone   
   manages.   
      
   Schwarzman’s total pay was more than 50% larger than his 2021 package of   
   $160 million. Total return for Blackstone shares, including the company’s   
   dividend, was minus 40% last year, compared with minus 18% for the S&P 500.   
   Through late June this year,   
    Blackstone’s total return was 22%, compared with about 14% for the index.   
      
   Schwarzman owns almost 20% of Blackstone, a stake qualifying for dividends of   
   about $1 billion in 2022.   
      
   A Blackstone spokesman said nearly 30% of Schwarzman’s 2022 pay reflects   
   investment performance in 2021, in a period when the company’s share price   
   also doubled. “Virtually all his compensation is carried interest and   
   incentive fees—which are    
   only paid when we deliver for our customers,” the spokesman said. He   
   declined to say how much of Schwarzman’s pay was in cash.   
      
   At Hertz, Stephen Scherr’s total pay of $182 million included $3.4 million   
   in salary and bonus. A further $178 million in restricted stock is structured   
   to vest through 2026, much of it only if the company’s shares reach 90-day   
   average price targets    
   ranging up to nearly double its current share price.   
      
   In its annual proxy statement, Hertz said two price targets had already been   
   met, meaning about $50 million in shares at recent prices stand to vest if   
   Scherr stays employed through 2026, in addition to roughly $20 million that   
   vested on Dec. 31.    
      
   Scherr, who earlier worked as Goldman Sachs Group’s chief financial officer,   
   took Hertz’s top job in February 2022, about seven months after the   
   rental-car chain emerged from bankruptcy-court protection.   
      
   Hertz shares fell 22% during Scherr’s tenure last year, while the S&P 500   
   fell 16%. The company valued Scherr’s equity award at roughly $128 million   
   at year-end, securities filings show. Hertz shares were up about 20% this year   
   through June 30.    
      
   Peloton’s Barry McCarthy started as CEO in Feb 2022, after stints as chief   
   financial officer at Spotify and Netflix. His $168 million pay package at   
   Peloton was almost entirely in stock options, which vest monthly over four   
   years.    
      
   With Peloton trading near $7.50 in recent days, those 8 million options are   
   underwater, meaning they would cost more to exercise than the underlying   
   shares are worth.    
      
   Peloton shares have fallen about 3% this year through June 30, and fell 79% in   
   2022 as declining demand left the company with a glut of the exercise bikes it   
   sells.    
      
   Of the $123 million Pinterest awarded Bill Ready last year, nearly $101   
   million came in stock options and $21.5 million in restricted stock made up   
   most of the rest. Both were awarded in connection with his hiring as CEO in   
   late June 2022.   
      
   The equity awards vest quarterly over four years if Ready remains employed. By   
   year-end, Ready’s 2022 stock and option awards had increased in value to   
   $153.6 million, Pinterest said in its securities filings.    
      
   Pinterest shares rose just over 20% last year. So far this year, Pinterest   
   shares have risen about 13% through June 30.   
      
   A Pinterest spokeswoman said Ready isn’t expected to receive additional   
   equity during his first four years, and the company sees his 2022 equity   
   awards as the equivalent of about $30 million a year over that time. Ready   
   also had to buy and hold $5    
   million in shares.   
      
   “If the company performs well, then Bill’s options have value,” the   
   spokeswoman said. “If the company doesn’t perform well, then Bill’s   
   compensation is going to be impacted.”   
      
   CS Disco, a 10-year-old Austin, Texas, company that sells online services to   
   law firms, attorneys and legal-services companies, is the smallest company in   
   the top-paid set. CEO Kiwi Camara, a co-founder, received $500,000 in salary   
   plus stock options    
   valued at $109 million, an award shareholders approved in a vote last year.   
      
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)