Sears paid almost $800,000 for CEO’s private jet commutes in 2011
Sears Holdings Corp. is slashing costs after losing $2.4 billion in the fourth quarter, including the closure of 120 of its department stores.
But one expense remains sky-high: the cost of charter flights for Chief Executive Louis J. D’Ambrosio, who lives in Philadelphia and commutes to Sears’ headquarters in Hoffman Estates, Ill.
Sears spent $793,224 last year shuttling D’Ambrosio by private jet back and forth, according to its latest proxy filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
D’Ambrosio, who joined Sears in February 2011, also received a signing bonus of $150,000, a base salary of $930,769 and stock awards valued at $8 million, for a total pay package approaching $10 million.
Hoffman Estates is a suburb northwest of Chicago. Sears, whose brands also include Kmart and Lands’ End, in 1992 moved out its former headquarters: the tallest building in the United States, the Willis Tower, still known informally to Chicagoans as the Sears Tower.
