« Cell phones will also read bar codes | Main | Executive compensation in the airline industry vs. worker give-backs »

Now this is disgusting:

Occidental Petroleum Corp.'s chairman and chief executive took in more than $400 million in compensation last year, the company said in a filing, one of the biggest single-year payouts in U.S. corporate history.

Yes, Ray Irani, the CEO only made a $1.3 million salary last year plus his nice little $1.4 million cash bonus, but stock options and other benefits lifted his 2006 compensation to $55.6 million.

So where did the rest of the $350 million come from?

The largest part of Ray Irani's 2006 payout was $270.2 million from the exercise of options awarded from 1997 to 2006, representing more than 7.1 million shares, according to the company's annual proxy statement, which was filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission in March.

He has been the chairman since 1990 when Armand Hammer retired, and the stock has risen from $9 to $40 in that time period, giving a total shareholder return of almost 700%. So his compensation really isn't all that skewed, right? "When you look at this, this is solid pay for performance," said Richard Kline, an Occidental spokesman. "It serves the best interest of the corporation and the best interest of the shareholder."

Yeah, right...except that in that time period we had the biggest bull market of all time (every stock went up) and the price of oil has been above $50/barrel for the past five years! So this man makes this grotesque amount of money just for being in the right place at the right time, and that company spokesman has the gall to say his pay was for solid performance. Is that really true? It's hard to believe, that's for sure...

By the way, he comes in #3 in all-time US Corporate payouts:

According to the Wall Street Journal, only a few CEOs have ever made more money in one year. In 2001, Oracle Corp. CEO Larry Ellison received $706 million from exercising stock options and in 1998, former Walt Disney Co. CEO Michael Eisner received $570 million, according to the newspaper.

Name (required)
Email
Website
Remember personal info? Yes   No
Comments

home | music | democracy | earth | money | projects | about | contact

Site design by Matthew Fries | © 2003-23 Consilience Productions. All Rights Reserved.
Consilience Productions, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization.
All contributions are fully tax deductible.