In advance of Microsoft’s upcoming shareholder’s meeting in November, the company issued its annual proxy statement for the recently concluded fiscal year. Amongst all the measures shareholders will be voting on, the proxy report also includes a breakdown of how much the company paid its highest earning executives last year, including CEO Satya Nadella himself.
No surprise that Satya Nadella was again the highest-paid executive at the company. He made just shy of $17.7 million, most of which was stock-based compensation. But this figure was slightly less than what he made the previous year. In 2015, Nadella made $18.3 million. The year over year difference in his pay is due to a decline in stock-based compensation. However, his annual bonus did increase slightly, while his base salary remained the same at $1.2 million.
The second highest paid officer would have been Chief Operating Office Kevin Turner, who earned $12.9 million before leaving the company towards the end of the fiscal year. So instead, the title of second highest paid officer passes to Chief Financial Officer Amy Hood. Hood received $10.3 million. As Matt Day of the Seattle Times reports, Hood’s pay increased by 19% over the previous year.
Brad Smith, Microsoft’s Chief Legal Officer took home $8.6 million, which was an increase of 27%. And newcomer Peggy Johnson, Executive Vice President of Business Development, made $6.7 million. Johnson’s pay figure included a $2.5 million cash hiring bonus.
Matt Day also reported that Microsoft is changing the reward metrics for bonus and stock-based compensation. So it will be interesting to see how executives’ compensation changes in Fiscal Year 2017 as it is more closely tied to performance.
