Irreverence

posted on 04 March 2008 08:51

Is Mike Kohler, data warehouse company Teradata's CEO, smiling in the picture below? Yes he is. Why might that be? It could be because his trousers are weighed down by $6.6 million which is what a grateful company paid him in 2007.

According to AP, a US SEC filed proxy statement reveals why he is beaming so much. The lucky man got $5.5 million in stock and option awards. That was just as well as his base salary was only $538,288. But he did get a performance bonus of $451,502. (Why award that final $2? What bureaocracy!)

On top of this Kohler received help such as:-

- $12,000 for financial planning services
- $10,867 for a retirement plan
- $9,700 for offer letter legal fees
- $1,479 for life insurance
- Up to $5,000 for medical diagnostic services

Teradata's net income in 2007 was $200 million, equating to $1.10/share, from revenue of $1.7 billion.

A CEO compensation package of $6.6 million looks peanuts compared to $1.7 billion, but less so when we realise that Kohler took home a sum equivalent to about 3 percent of the company's net income.

NCR spun off Teradata in October and the CEO's compensation package is geared to making this transition to an independent business successful.