Highest Paid CEO in the World: Stephen Schwarzman or Aubrey McClendon?

Highest Paid CEO in the US. Stephen Schwarzman, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Blackstone Group investment firm, is the highest paid CEO in the United States. According to the Corporate Library, a group which monitors corporate governance on behalf of shareholders, Schwarzman received US$ 702.4 million in compensation last year.

Who decided to pay him that amount? Well, according to the Corporate Library, the entire compensation package “was decided not by a compensation committee but by Mr. Schwarzman himself.” Yup, that’s right. He decided how much he’s gonna get paid. Does that not violate the “conflict of interest” thingie?

Anyhoo, here’s the top ten highest paid CEOs in the U.S.
1. Stephen Schwarzman, $702.4 million, Blackstone Group
2. Lawrence Ellison, Oracle Corp., US$556.9 million
3. Ray Irani, Occidental Petroleum, $222.6 million
4. John Hess, Hess Corporation, $159.6 million
5. Michael Watford, Ultra Petroleum Corp.’s, $116.9 million
6. Aubrey McClendon, Chesapeake Energy, $114.3 million
7. Bob Simpson, XTO Energy, $103.5 million
8. Mark Papa, EOG Resources, $90.5 million
9. Eugene Isenberg, Nabors Industries, $79.3 million
10. Michael Jeffries, Abercrombie & Fitch Co., $71.8 million

Except for Schwarzman (investment), Ellison (software), and Jeffries (fashion), the top ten is dominated by CEOs from energy companies. By the way, you might want to compare this list with the list made by the Associated Press which puts Chesapeake’s McClendon at the top of the heap [see below].

Highest Paid CEO in the World: Aubrey McClendon (posted 02 May 2009). Mirror, mirror on the wall, who’s the highest paid of all? If by “who” you are referring to Chief Executive Officers (CEOs), then the highest paid of them all is Aubrey McClendon. This is according to the Associated Press which uses a “compensation formula, which adds up salary, perks, bonuses, preferential interest rates on pay set aside for later, and company estimates for the value of stock options and stock awards” to determine CEO pay.

highest paid ceo in the world mcclendon

So what’s Aubrey’s secret which made him the highest paid CEO in the business world? Well, according to our imaginary source, Aubrey’s dirty little secret is that he keeps his hands busy as you can see in these pictures. Either that or he’s praising God all the time like an evangelical revivalist or something.

Anyways, here’s the top ten highest paid CEOs in 2008:
1. Aubrey McClendon, Chesapeake Energy Corp., $112.5 million
2. Sanjay Jha, Motorola Inc., $104.4 million
3. Robert Iger, Walt Disney Co., $51.1 million
4. Lloyd Blankfein, Goldman Sachs Group Inc., $42.9 million
5. Kenneth Chenault, American Express Co., $42.9 million
6. Vikram Pandit, Citigroup Inc., $38.2 million
7. Steven Farris, Apache Corp., $37.2 million
8. Louis Camilleri, Philip Morris International Inc., $36.9 million
9. Kevin Johnson, Juniper Networks Inc., $36.1 million
10. Jamie Dimon, JPMorgan Chase & Co., $35.7 million

Highest Paid CEO in the World: Aubrey McClendon? Posted 14 August 2009.