The best paid CEO in the US is not in Apple or Tesla. It is a complete stranger of a company that you had not heard

When we think of the CEOs Better paid on the planet Surely we repeat a small group of people at the controls of some of the great technological corporations that dominate the present. We would not be unchanged in figures such as Tim Cook, Satya Nadella or Mark Zuckerberg, but none of them approaches the emoluments received by the Jafazo best paid in the United States. The curious thing about this story is that you have not heard in your life or the CEO, nor the company it directs.

A complete stranger at the top. In an environment, that of the great corporations, dominated by omnipresent names such as Tim Cook, Elon Musk or Jensen Huang, the title of the best paid CEO of 2024 did not fell in any of them, but in an executive practically unknown to the general public: James Anderson.

As? Yes, the man is in charge of COHERENTa technological company based in Saxonburg, Pennsylvania, dedicated to the manufacture of network and laser systems. Anderson received a total remuneration of 101.5 million dollarssurpassing by a wide margin to figures such as Brian Niccol de Starbucks or Satya Nadella de Microsoft. Its impressive salary package positions it as the only CEO of the Ranking of Equila (which analyzed the 100 companies with income greater than one billion dollars) to exceed the barrier of the nine digits in compensation, in a year in which the average salary of an CEO reached a record of 25.6 million dollars.

The stock market effect and a distortion. Although Anderson has a base salary of little more than one millionits incorporation to Coherent in June 2024 made its remuneration in cash be limited to only $ 81,538, along with a signature bonus of half a million. The rest, 99.4% of its emoluments, came from a Actions package whose value was shot unexpectedly. The reason: the enthusiasm of the market after the announcement of its appointment catapulted the price of coherent shares, thus generating an inflationary effect on the value of its shareholding concessions.

The company, in Your proxy reporteven recognized this paradox: the actions were valued using a 30 -day mobile average that did not reflect the posterior stock market explosion, which artificially amplified the amount of the package. In addition, the payment included compensation for the loss of deferred actions accumulated during its previous stage in Semiconductor Laticewhere it was considered key in the exponential growth of the stock market value.

Domino effect. The impact of his Latetice departure and his arrival in Coherent was immediate. On the same day of the ad, the market value of Latice fell 15.5%which represented a loss of 1.6 billion dollars, while Coherent shares rose 22.9%, adding about 2,000 million in stock market capitalization.

Since then, Coherent has maintained sustained growth, while Latice has retreated 34%. To all this, we must add that Anderson, Electrical Engineer With titles of MIT, Purdue and the University of Minnesota, it has a proven history: During their management in Lattice, the actions rose more than 875%, exceeding by broad margin to the S&P 500. In other words: its reputation as a silent transformer seems to have become an asset as valuable as any product line.

The era of actions as salary. In the background, Anderson’s case illustrates a Dominant trend In contemporary executive compensation: retribution in shares represents near the 73% of the average total salary of the ceos, According to equilationwith a 41% increase compared to the previous year. This form of remuneration, linked to stock market performance rather than immediate results, has allowed to justify very high compensations, even in companies where the benefits do not always accompany.

For example, Summit Singh, Chewy CEO, He received 35.1 million in 2024 Although the actions of the company 60% fellthe worst performance of the entire list. In contrast, Jensen Huang, from Nvidia (the firm with Best stock yield of the year, with an increase of 215%) received 34.1 million, although Your personal fortune It is estimated at 92,000 million thanks to its shareholding of 3.5%.

Benefits, security and inequality. There is much more, of course. In fact, in addition to wages and actions, many CEOs enjoy luxurious additional benefits. They counted in Barrons That Tim Cook, for example, received more than $ 780,000 in personal security services and another 655,000 on private flights. Starbucks, meanwhile, provides its CEO flights exclusively in private jets.

Plus: This type of expenses has become more common due to growing concerns for security, especially after UNITEDHEALTH GROUP CEO Murder in a street in New York. In fact, a parallel study of equilation shows that almost a third of the S&P 500 companies already offer some type of executive protection, in this case a 28% increase Regarding 2023.

The enigma Elon Musk. Yes, you may have realized that The richest man The planet has not appeared much until now. Elon Musk, although absent from the ranking because Tesla He has not presented Even your proxy report is still a key figure. Its previous ten -year compensation plan, approved in 2018 and currently valued in about 70,000 millionwas canceled twice By a delaware judge and now awaits a resolution in the state Supreme Court.

This episode, together with the growing disconnection between real performance and executive remuneration, has fed criticism about the lack of effective controls in corporate wages. As Dean Baker summed upco -founder of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, “there is no real control over what is paid to the CEOS”, adding that many are not extraordinary, although they are paid as if they were. Citing these days, Warren Buffett, I remembered: “I try to invest in companies so good that even an idiot can direct them, because sooner or later, someone will do it.”

Reflection of an era. In summary, at a time where salary inequality and wealth concentration generate increasingly intense debates, Anderson’s story It represents both an atypical case and the mirror of a structural trend.

While your rise to the salary peak may be based on tangible achievements and market support, the Model that makes it possible It is rather part of an increasingly questioned system, where the perception of value can far exceed the objective reality of performance. A system that, at least for now, seems tailored to those who, like Anderson, know how to move with skill between figures, expectations and actions.

Image | Juan BarahonaXataka, Equilate

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