Pfizer CEO Gets 12.5 Percent Raise From Last Year's $14.9M
Pfizer CEO Gets 12.5 Percent Raise From Last Year's $14.9M [The Day, New London, Conn.]
From Day, The (New London, CT) (March 4, 2010)
Mar. 4--As Pfizer Inc. continues a series of layoffs that are expected to total nearly 20,000 by the time its consolidation of Wyeth Pharmaceuticals is concluded, the company gave its top leader a 12.5 percent raise this week.
A regulatory filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission late Tuesday showed that a committee of Pfizer’s board of directors has ended a freeze on some top executive salaries it imposed last year because of the recession and poor stock performance.
CEO Jeff Kindler’s overall compensation for last year was $14.9 million, according to Dow Jones Newswire, a slight decrease from the year before, mostly because of lower stock prices for much of 2009. But Kindler stands to receive more this year: a base salary of $1.8 million (versus $1.6 million last year), an incentive target award of up to $2.7 million (from $2.4 million last year) and a long-term incentive award of $12 million (compared with $8.3 million last year).
The company said the raise, effective April 1, was supported by the "increased complexity of the organization" and Kindler’s role in the $67 billion Wyeth deal, completed last year.
While Kindler’s compensation package may seem generous, it doesn’t reach the level of some other top big-pharmaceutical chief executives, despite Pfizer’s role as the world’s biggest research-based pharmaceutical firm. For instance, Abbott Laboratories’ Miles White reportedly received $25.3 million in 2008, and Merck & Co.’s Richard T. Clark, pulled down $17.3 million in the same year.
Other top Pfizer executives won raises of as much as 3.8 percent. Bonuses last year had been cut, though chief financial officer Frank D’Amelio and biopharmaceutical president Ian Read each took home special one-time awards of $1 million or more for their roles in the integration of Wyeth.
Also revealed in SEC filings Tuesday, Pfizer’s board has amended company by-laws to allow for the possibility of the board chairman’s and chief executive’s role to be held by different people. Kindler currently holds both titles, and Pfizer’s board said in the proxy statement that the traditional arrangement would continue.
It’s unclear whether the board was bowing to investor pressure, in light of measures introduced in past years asking the company to split the job responsibilities. Outrage at executive pay exploded in light of an $83 million pension package for Hank McKinnell, the former Pfizer chairman and chief executive who raked in huge gains for himself even as the company’s stock declined nearly 50 percent during his tenure.
One of Pfizer’s top research sites is in Groton, and the company employs nearly 5,000 locally.
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Posted: March 2010
