Modest CIOs; Extravagant Paychecks

Who says hard work doesn’t pay?! It seems that CIOs are finally being compensated in monetary terms that will veil the years of drudgery that they have undergone at the hands of their senior most executives, reports Ann Bednarz of Network World.

The indifference in attitude meted out to them can be overseen as top CIOs pocket a seven-figure paycheck which includes salaries, bonuses, stock options and perks.

After the examination of proxy statements in the Fortune 500, Network World came across 27 senior IT officials whose pay package, when summed up, crossed the coveted seven figure mark. It included the likes of FedEx, Aetna, UPD and American Express to cite a few. Moreover, these IT executives figure among the highest paid officials across the big-wigs of corporate America.

For instance, Harvey DeMovick, EVP customer services organization and IT of Coventry takes home a mind numbing $4.5 million paycheck. His counterpart, Keith Halbert, former EVP and CIO of United Continental Holdings fares even better with an impressive, very impressive $ 5 million pay package.

If one commits the blunder of assuming this is the pinnacle for CIOs, wait till he comes across the Group President, global corporate services of American Express, Steve Squeri. His paycheck reads an insane $ 8.6 million.

What is even more astounding is that these 27 IT executives, whose detailed pay packages can be unearthed in the CIO pay disclosures, are not even in the chronological order. Moreover, a public company is liable to report the compensation only of its chief executive officer, chief financial officer along with the three most highly compensated executives. As such, if a senior IT leader features in the company's three most highly paid executives, that executive’s compensation is reported in the organization's proxy statement else it is kept discreet.

Which brings us to the inevitable conclusion that there exist amongst us, CIOs, whose paycheck transgress beyond our imagination. Now ponder that for a while!