• General
  • October 17, 2021
  • 6 minutes read

Microsoft CEO, Other Execs Bag Annual Pay Raises

Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) has raised the annual pay package of its Chief Executive Officer, Satya Nadella, the company’s latest proxy statement…

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella


Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) has raised the annual pay package of its Chief Executive Officer, Satya Nadella, the company’s latest proxy statement reveals. Nadella enjoyed a substantial pay raise along with several other Microsoft executives.

  • For the fiscal year ended June 30, 2021, Nadella’s compensation was $50mn, up 13% compared to the previous year. The lucrative pay package was split into a $2.5mn base salary, $33mn of stock awards, a $14mn cash bonus, and $110k in “other” compensation.
  • Nadella’s pay raise was in line with other Microsoft executives, including President Brad Smith and CFO Amy Hood. They each got annual pay raises in the 20% ballpark compared to 2020.
The reported pay packages of Microsoft’s top executives for the fiscal year is as follows;
  • Satya Nadella (CEO) – $50mn.
  • Amy Hood (CFO) – $23.5mn
  • Brad Smith (President and Chief Legal Officer) – $20.5mn
  • Jean-Philippe Courtois (Executive Vice President) – $17mn
  • Christopher Young (Executive Vice President) – $28.5mn.
It’s no surprise that Nadella is Microsoft’s highest-paid employee given he’s CEO or that he’s one of the highest-paid executives in the US, given he runs a company valued at over $2 trillion. Since he was appointed CEO in 2014, Nadella has earned tens of millions each year at Microsoft’s helm. For example, he made $44mn in fiscal 2020 and $43mn the year before. 

Because of the lucrative pay packages and Microsoft’s market cap now over 5x compared to when Nadella took over, those tens of millions in pay have morphed into hundreds of millions for him, including shares he currently owns and those he’s sold over the years. He currently holds at least 1 million shares, worth over $300mn at current prices.
  • Microsoft shareholders are definitely pleased with Nadella’s leadership, or at least for the fact that the software giant’s market cap has risen from sub-$400bn when he took over to $2.2 trillion currently. Contextualizing these figures, it’s easy to see why Microsoft’s board is rewarding their CEO very handsomely.

                                               


Photo: Satya Nadella, credit: World Economic Forumlicensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

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