Alongside factors of credibility and competence, while playing the role of the leaders of top corporate czars of the telecom industry, a constant hike in the total shareholder return for the company along with its market capitalization, is also what makes an executive stand out as a top Chief Executive Officer (CEO).
As they bear a huge responsibility on their shoulders, the telecom’s make sure that these employers have their pockets full. Also, a CEO’s compensation reflects on how well the company is doing overall, as the base salary is usually only around 20% of total compensation, and the remainder is based on the company’s performance.
Investomedia has the list of the highest paid CEOs of the telecom industry — in the decreasing order.
Within a time-frame of less than eight months, Marcelo Claure, CEO of Sprint Corporation, tops the list with an earning of near to $22 million. He draws a compensation package containing of a base salary of $923,077, alongside a signing bonus of $500,000, additional bonuses adding up to $2,420,330, and stock awards and stock options amounting to almost $20 million. This earning is in spite of the Sprint share price fall by 36 percent last year. Also, Sprint has delivered $11 million to its former CEO, Dan Hesse as a part of the $40 million severance package that includes cash, stock and options.
AT&T CEO and President Randall Stevenson stands at the second position with a salary of $24 million for the year 2014, claims a Financial Times report. Approximately $14 million of the net sum was drawn from the company equity. Although Randall L. Stephenson’s received a higher compensation than Sprint’s Claure, the CEO and president of AT&T, Inc. had the compensation for the entire 2014 fiscal year, while Claure’s compensation was amounted for only eight months. Hence when compared, Claure tops the list.
Stephenson, following Claure, has $1.7 million in salary, $14 million in stock and stock options and $6.5 million in bonuses and other compensation. Stephenson has led to growth worth $173 billion in AT&T through the three domains of wireless, wireline and other. He has been a longtime employee of AT&T and its predecessor SBC Communications, and took over as CEO in May 2007 being named as its president a month later. The timing of the promotion coincided with the release of the iPhone during which AT&T came out as its sole service provider. Also, Ralph de la Vega, CEO, Mobile and Business Solutions, AT&T, has made almost $10 million, according to Salary.com.
The outspoken CEO of T-Mobile US, John Legere, ranked at No. 3 with a salary of $18.57 million. Constituting approximately $10 million of the salary coming from equity, a total sum of $29 million has been his net earning, claims independent investment research firm, Morningstar.
John J. Legere, lost his earlier top ranking by falling down by two spots to number three with a salary breakdown of a base salary of $1.25 million, $10.66 million in stock awards, and $4.83 million from a non-equity incentive plan. Legere started with T-Mobile as CEO in September 2012, and got into news for reinventing himself to connect with the hot millennial market and for the bold approaches of no contracts for wireless customers. Both strategies played well adding an 8.3 million total wireless customers to the telecoms in 2014.
Verizon Communications, the telecoms owning the country’s largest carrier in Verizon Wireless, paid its No. 1 man, Lowell Adams with $18 million. Around $12 million of Adams’ salary came from stock and options. With a 16% increase in his compensation for fiscal year 2014 from the previous year, his net earnings of the year segregate into $1.6 million in base salary, $12 million in stock awards and over $4 million in bonuses and other income.
McAdam acclaimed the CEO position in 2011 and Verizon has grown to be the number one wireless provider in the United States, in his reign. Verizon Wireless boasts of a customer base of 137 million, reports Hoover’s. Verizon also provides wireline, Internet, digital TV and mobile video services.
Glen F. Post, III, CEO of CenturyLink, which offers phone, Internet and cable TV services, comes in at the fifth and the last position on our list with a $13.1 million compensation acquired in the fiscal year 2014. This includes a $1.1 million base salary, stock awards of $9.6 million plus bonuses and other compensation.
Post has experience as a CEO since 1992 as his credit during the tenure of which the company has grown to become the third-largest U.S.-based telecom company, lagging just behind AT&T and Verizon. CenturyLink has operating revenues of $18 billion for 2014.
Vina Krishnan
editor@telecomlead.com
editor@telecomlead.com
