I might have made as much money as Pfizer's CEO/chairman, Hank McKinnell. In the 5 years he has held his job, he has made
$28 million in salary and bonuses,
$55 million in stock options.
And now he stands to gain as much as $83 million upon retirement. People are a bit ticked off.
And the saga of Computer Associate's former CEO Sanjay Kumar (also part owner of the NY Islanders) continues:
Kumar and Stephen Richards, its former head of worldwide sales, had been accused in a 2004 indictment of engaging in a widespread scheme to falsely inflate the company's quarterly earnings by backdating contracts.
The Islandia, N.Y.-based company restated its financial results from 2000 and 2001 to reflect $2.2 billion in revenue that was improperly booked.
It's still a good time to be a corporate CEO, as Lee Raymond can attest.
Unfortunately, it looks like the outlook for small business is quite a different story.
4 comments:
Subjunctive, dude.
Uh-oh.
Well, I were half asleep when I posted it, so cut me some slack.
These companies and their accomplices in the corporate board are going to end up with government oversight. I'm generally against government involvement in business decisions. However, we have had too many of these situations that border on sanctioned theft from shareholders. The BoD is supposed to look out for the shareholders but appear to either be asleep at the wheel or criminally cupable.
I think that's absolutely right. On the good side, many companies have recognized the problem and are making changes in corporate governance.
One of the changes that is now generally accepted as being desirable is not to have the same person as CEO and chairman. It's a bit like having the same person as President and Majority Leader. No checks and balances.
Hank McKinnell, the Pfizer exec, held both posts.
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