Travelers’ Weill Is Best-Paid CEO in U.S.
There are those who want to be like Michael Jordan, but after considering some executive salaries, some folks might want to be more like Sandy.
According to Forbes magazine, Sanford I. Weill, the chief executive of Travelers Group and future co-chairman of Citigroup, made almost $228 million in 1997. That’s nearly three times what Forbes said Jordan of the Chicago Bulls made last year, by comparison a paltry $78 million.
Weill, as recorded in Forbes’ May 18 issue, tops a list of last year’s 800 best-paid American CEOs, based upon salary, bonus, gains from exercising options and other remuneration.
Jordan would have been No. 5 if he were a CEO instead of a one-man product-endorsement and restaurant franchise.
But Weill is topped in other categories. For instance, filmmaker Steven Spielberg made about $283 million last year, putting him at the apex of Forbes Top 40.
Somehow, Bill Gates and Warren Buffett didn’t make the list, but they remained the No. 1 and No. 2 wealthiest Americans by owning stock, with Gates’ holdings appreciating by $22 billion last year. Microsoft Corp.’s CEO had stock worth $49.5 billion--and a paycheck of $2.5 million--while Berkshire Hathaway’s Buffett owned stock worth $36.55 billion and was paid $500,000.
By comparison, there are only two billionaires among the top 25 on the list. As Forbes said in the magazine: “In a capitalistic society, the biggest rewards go to capitalists, not to managers.”
The magazine determined compensation by summing up salary, bonus, noncash stock gains--mainly from exercising stock options--and other benefits such as country club memberships, life insurance premiums and car allowances. The information came from proxy statements and questionnaires sent out by Forbes. The 800 companies came from Forbes 500 lists ranking companies according to sales, profits, assets and market value, plus 21 runners-up for those lists.
According to Forbes, the average U.S. CEO is a 56-year-old man--797 of the 800 are men--who has spent 21 years at the company he heads. Fifty-two of the 800 never got a college degree, but 53% have graduate degrees. The oldest CEO: William Dillard, 83, of department store chain Dillard’s Inc. The youngest: Michael Dell, 33, of Dell Computer Corp.
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Big-Check List
The Top 10 list, according to Forbes:
1. Sanford I. Weill, Travelers Group, $227.6 million
2. Stephen C. Hilbert, Conseco, $124.6 million
3. Richard M. Scrushy, HealthSouth, $106.8 million
4. Ray R. Irani, Occidental Petroleum, $104.5 million
5. Lawrence A. Bossidy, Allied Signal, $57.5 million
6. Andrew S. Grove, Intel, $52.6 million
7. Charles W. McCall, HBO & Co., $52.1 million
8. Robert B. Shapiro, Monsanto, $51.8 million
9. Philip J. Purcell, Morgan Stanley, Dean Witter & Co., $47.7 million
10. Henry R. Silverman, Cendant, $44.1 million
