- Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella’s pay during the company’s most recent fiscal year is up 65 percent to $42.9 million.
- A big part of Nadella’s higher compensation includes stock awards related to Microsoft’s increasing market cap.
- Nadella made 249 times more than the company’s median employee in fiscal year 2019.
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Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella brought in some $42.9 million in total pay in the company’s 2019 fiscal year — that’s up about 65% from the year before.
Part of that, Microsoft said in a proxy statement announcing his pay package, is due to a simple raise, which the company credits to his performance as chief executive since taking over in 2014. His base salary went from $1.5 million up to $2,333,333, and his overall potential cash and equity bonuses jumped up, too.
However, a big part of that pay package comes from the partial vesting of a one-time, performance-based stock option award that Nadella was granted when he first took the job. Basically, because Microsoft’s market cap has gone up by over $500 billion on his five-year watch, and because its shareholder returns compare favorably to the S&P 500 index, Nadella unlocked the maximum award for this 5-year period of 900,000 additional shares.
All told, Microsoft granted Nadella $29.6 million in stock awards over the year, and $10.8 million in cash, all on top of his regular salary, to reach that $42.9 million figure.
Microsoft Chief Financial Officer Amy Hood’s 2019 compensation reached nearly $20.3 million, up about 35 percent from last year, including more than $19.1 million in stock awards and incentives. She was the company’s second-highest-paid executive for the year.
President and Chief Legal Officer Brad Smith brought in almost $17.4 million, up nearly 29 percent from fiscal year 2018. Compensation for Smith and Nadella included $100,000 each in charitable gift matches.
Nadella’s fiscal year 2019 compensation was 249 times more than Microsoft’s median employee, which the company said made $172,512 in the same period.
Microsoft announced in September longtime board members Charles H. Noski, former AT&T and Bank of America vice chairman, and Helmut Panke, former chairman of the board of management at BMW, will not seek reelection. GlaxoSmithKline CEO Emma Walmsley has been nominated to the company’s board.
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