Who are the 10 highest-paid CEOs in tech industry?
We all know how hard it's to be a CEO. The Chief Executives, especially those at large companies, have more responsibility on their shoulders and also face greater pressures. So, naturally, CEOs are well-compensated. The year 2017 was a good one for the bosses at tech companies; some were even ranked among the highest-paid CEOs for last year. Here are 10 highest-paid tech CEOs.
Compensation-data firm Equilar and The New York Times conducted an annual survey to analyze top CEOs and prepare a list of the 200 highest-paid bosses for last year. Among the tech CEOs, both the CEOs at Oracle, Mark Hurd and Safra Catz, earned the highest salaries in 2017. While Hurd's total compensation was $41.1mn, that of his colleague Safra Catz stood at $40.9mn.
The Oracle CEOs are followed by Robert Kotick, CEO of the California-based interactive entertainment company, Activision Blizzard. Kotick received total compensation of $33.1mn; his pay went up by 358% compared to his 2016 salary. Next on the list is the former Hewlett Packard Enterprise CEO, Meg Whitman, with $32.9mn; she stepped down on 1 Feb'18. Her total compensation in 2017 saw 93% rise year-on-year.
Coming in at fifth is the IBM Chief, Virginia Rometty, who earned $32.3mn in 2017; her salary increased by 63% from 2016. Dion Weisler, the CEO of HP Inc., ranks sixth on the list with total compensation of $28.2mn. Weisler became the CEO of the tech company in 2015 when the original Hewlett-Packard Company was split into HP Inc. and Hewlett Packard Enterprise.
James Peterson, the CEO of Microsemi (a military and aerospace semiconductor equipment supplying company), saw a rise of 277% in his pay in 2017; he received a total compensation of $28mn. Meanwhile, the Chief Executive of the global telecom giant AT&T, Randall Stephenson, earned a total salary of $25mn last year - 11% more than what he was paid in 2016.
Leading semiconductor company Broadcom's Chief Executive, Hock E Tan, found himself at the tenth position on the highest-paid tech CEOs' list. His total compensation was $24.7mn. It is a whopping 513% hike in his pay year-on-year. The CEO of American financial company MSCI, Henry Fernandez, received a total compensation of $22.2mn in 2017. He got a 245% salary bump last year.
Apart from these ten CEOs, there are many other noted tech leaders who earned a spot on the top 25 highest paid list. They include T-Mobile's John Legere (total compensation $20.1mn), Adobe's Shantanu Narayen ($20mn), Intel's Brian Krzanich ($19.1mn), Accenture's Pierre Nanterme ($18.5mn), Microsoft's Satya Nadella ($17.7mn), Verizon's Lowell McAdam ($17.4mn), Cisco's Chuck Robbins ($16mn), and eBay Inc's Devin Wenig ($15.9mn).
