Tag Archives: Executive Pay

Goldman Sachs Cut CEO David Solomon’s Pay to $25 Million in 2022

Goldman Sachs Group Inc.

GS 0.07%

Chief Executive

David Solomon

took a nearly 30% pay cut in 2022.

Mr. Solomon received $25 million in total compensation last year, down from $35 million in 2021. His 2022 pay package consisted of a $2 million base salary, a cash bonus of $6.9 million and a $16.1 million stock award that is tied to how well the bank performs in the next few years, Goldman said in a regulatory filing.

Mr. Solomon’s 2022 compensation reflects the bank’s performance compared with 2021, Goldman said in the filing. Profit fell 48% last year, and revenue declined 20%, largely due to a slowdown in corporate deal-making that had previously fueled blockbuster earnings. Still, Goldman shares outperformed the KBW Nasdaq Bank Index and the broader S&P 500 last year. 

In 2021, the bank’s shares were soaring and the bank was minting money in a merger boom that kept its high-price bankers busy. 

Goldman doubled Mr. Solomon’s pay that year, an acknowledgment of the bank’s record profits and following a year when he was penalized for the firm’s involvement in the 1MDB corruption scandal. The bank also awarded Mr. Solomon a one-time stock award of about $30 million that year, citing “the rapidly increasing war for talent in the current environment.”

Late last year, Mr. Solomon engineered a restructuring of Goldman’s businesses meant to spotlight steadier businesses like asset and wealth management, taking some of the focus off its more volatile Wall Street operations. 

He’s also paring back the bank’s consumer-facing Marcus operations and has admitted that Goldman’s attempts to do too much there contributed to missteps. The bank’s newly created Platform Solutions division, which houses credit cards and other pieces of the consumer business, lost about $2 billion on a pretax basis in 2022. 

Mr. Solomon has moved to cut costs at Goldman. The bank laid off some 3,000 employees this month and slashed bonuses for many bankers by up to 40%. 

Goldman’s compensation committee also considered the bank’s “continued progress in its strategic evolution as well as Mr. Solomon’s strong individual performance and effective leadership,” according to the filing. 

Mr. Solomon’s pay fell more than his Wall Street counterparts. 

Morgan Stanley

paid Chief Executive James Gorman $31.5 million for his work in 2022, a 10% pay cut from the year before.

 JPMorgan Chase

& Co. awarded CEO Jamie Dimon $34.5 million in 2022 compensation, in line with a year earlier.

Wells Fargo

& Co. CEO Charles Scharf’s 2022 pay also stayed flat at $24.5 million in 2022.

Write to AnnaMaria Andriotis at annamaria.andriotis@wsj.com

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GE Cuts Larry Culp’s 2022 Pay After Shareholder Protest

General Electric Co. said Chief Executive

Larry Culp

agreed to reduce his potential compensation by about $10 million this year, responding to shareholder concerns over changes that

GE’s

GE 0.88%

board made to executives’ pay packages in 2020.

In August 2020, the GE board revised Mr. Culp’s contract, extending it until 2024 and awarding him a special stock grant during the year that was valued at more than $100 million by the end of 2020. Asset managers called the awards poorly linked to the company’s performance, which they characterized as trailing that of GE’s peers.

Nearly 58% of GE shares were voted against the board’s compensation practices at last year’s annual meeting. It is rare for shareholders to withhold their support for such say-on-pay votes at major companies.

For 2022, Mr. Culp stands to receive a $5 million equity award, instead of the $15 million set out in his revised contract, if he and the company meet performance targets. Exceeding those targets or falling short would increase or reduce the award, respectively.

GE reduced Mr. Culp’s potential 2022 pay following discussions with most of its major shareholders last year, the company said in its annual proxy statement.

“There was shareholder concern around the timing, size and structure of the 2020 retention grant made as part of the extension,” GE said in its filing, along with shareholder support for Mr. Culp’s leadership. The company also said it doesn’t plan to make similar changes to its CEO’s pay in future years.

On Thursday, GE reported paying Mr. Culp $22.7 million for 2021, including a cash bonus of $4.2 million and salary of $2.5 million as well as a $15 million equity award. The equity award was made before the 2021 annual meeting, GE said in the filing.

His 2021 pay trailed the $73.2 million that GE reported paying him in 2020, but it roughly matched the $24.6 million paid in 2019, Mr. Culp’s first full year heading the company, securities filings show.

GE said in its proxy that the board would also limit its use of discretion when determining executive bonuses, after shareholders expressed concerns that GE used discretion in 2020 to award bonuses rather than pegging them to performance measures.

The company said Mr. Culp’s bonus for 2021 paid out at 112% of target, reflecting better-than-target free-cash-flow and margin-expansion figures, and worse-than-target revenue growth, as well as a penalty based on companywide safety metrics.

A GE spokeswoman said the company spoke with investors holding about half the company’s shares, and three-quarters of those held by institutional investors, after the failed say-on-pay vote.

Write to Theo Francis at theo.francis@wsj.com

Copyright ©2022 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8

Appeared in the March 18, 2022, print edition as ‘GE Cuts CEO Pay After Shareholder Protest.’

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