Highest-paid CEOs with the worst performance

Despite heavy corporate losses, some CEOs on the S&P received high compensation packages with three of them earning $15 million or more. For instance, Pfizer and Moderna, leading healthcare companies, experienced a decline in performance due to reduced demand for COVID-related vaccines, resulting in financial losses and weaker overall performance. Despite these setbacks, both companies’ CEOs made the list of highest-paid CEOs with the worst performance.

Stéphane Bancel, the CEO of Moderna, received a total compensation package of $17.07 million, which was lower than the $19.4 million he received in 2022. Moderna increased Bancel’s salary by 5% to nearly $1.6 million and awarded him a bonus of about $1.9 million. The remaining $12.5 million of Bancel’s compensation came in the form of equity awards, split between stock and personal share units. Moderna distributed “uniform bonuses” to Bancel and other members of the executive committee to ensure shared responsibility for both positive and negative outcomes in 2023. As a result, all executives, including Bancel, received bonuses amounting to 81% of a target that was 150% of each person’s salary.

In 2023, Albert Bourla at Pfizer received a total compensation of $21.57 million, even though the company decided not to award bonuses to its executives due to its financial performance. Despite a 35% pay cut, Albert Bourla remains one of the highest-paid CEOs in the biopharma industry, earning nearly 300 times more than the company’s median employee. Pfizer, like many pharmaceutical companies, has been significantly impacted by the declining COVID-19 market. In its full-year 2023 business report, the company reported a 42% decline in revenue, with earnings dropping from over $100 billion in 2022 to $58.5 billion in the last year. In the third quarter of 2023, Pfizer experienced its first quarterly loss since 2019. To improve its financial position, the company initiated a comprehensive cost-cutting plan in October 2023, aiming to save $3.5 billion by 2024.

Enphase Energy had a return of -50.1% last year, while CEO Badrinarayanan Kothandaraman received a compensation of $19.52 million, with the majority, around $18.8 million, in equity. Similarly, FMC, with a -48% return, saw CEO Mark Douglas receive $9.63 million, with $7.22 million in equity.

Chad Richison, CEO of Paycom Software, received over $3 million in cash and other payments as his company saw a shareholder return of -33.1% last year. He was the only CEO on the worst-performing list whose salary package was not built around equity. Mark Douglas, CEO of FMC, which had a -48% return last year, received $9.63 million, of which $7.22 million was in equity.

1. Albert Bourla
   Chief Executive Officer of Pfizer
   Executive compensation: $21.57 million
2. Stéphane Bancel
   Chief Executive Officer of Moderna
   Executive compensation: $17.07 million
3. Badrinarayanan Kothandaraman
   Chief Executive Officer of Enphase Energy, Inc.
   Executive compensation: $19.52 million
4. Mark A. Douglas
   Chief Executive Officer of FMC Corporation
   Executive compensation:$9.63 million
5. Chad Richison
   Chief Executive Officer of Paycom Software
   Executive compensation: $3 million

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