With a fortune of US$17 billion, Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer is the wealthiest chief executive amongst those heading the 30 largest publicly-listed US firms. This comes despite Ballmer being the lowest paid Dow Jones CEO in 2012, taking homeUS$1.3 million in total compensation compared to peers who earned up to US$40 million.
Wealth-X, the ultra high net worth intelligence provider, compiled the list from proxy statements filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission regarding firms listed on the Dow Jones Industrial Average benchmark index.
Ballmer received a 2012 fiscal bonus of US$620,000, less than half the possible maximum bonus ofUS$1.37 million. Microsoft trimmed pay for its executives last year, citing slower-than-planned growth in its online services division and a US$732 million fine for failure to comply with European regulators.
The second wealthiest CEO is Meg Whitman of Hewlett-Packard, the only female chief executive in the Wealth-X ranking. Although her 2012 base salary was just US$1, Whitman took home more than US$15 million in compensation. The former eBay chief was brought in to help turn the company around and has joined other “dollar-a-year” tech executives such as Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, Google’s Larry Page and Oracle’s Larry Ellison, who have agreed to tie their compensations closely to company performance.
For the full top ten list, visit http://www.wealthx.com/articles/2013/microsofts-ballmer-tops-wealthiest-us-ceos-list-despite-reduced-2012-bonus
