Sean Buckley
Samantha Bookman
Michael Kennedy
Anna-Maria Kovacs
A. Michael NollThe 15 highest-paid CEOs in wireline
Who are the highest paid CEOs in the wireline segment of the telecom industry? This week, we detail the salary and compensation rates of chief executives at 15 publicly traded telcos.
While the top-paid executives likely aren't much of a surprise--Verizon's (NYSE: VZ) Lowell McAdam and AT&T's (NYSE: T) Randall Stephenson sit in the top chairs of America's telco duopoly--the changes in compensation rates between 2011 and 2010 are sometimes striking.
McAdam, for example, saw his total compensation, including salary, bonuses, stock awards and other compensation, leap from $7.2 million in 2010 to $23.1 million in 2011, in part because of his promotion from COO of Verizon Wireless to CEO of Verizon Communications.
Meanwhile, Stephenson's total compensation dropped precipitously, from $27.3 million in 2010 to $22.01 million in 2011--no thanks to the failed AT&T/T-Mobile merger, for which $2 million was docked from his compensation package.
Why detail 15 CEOs? The salaries of those leading smaller competitive telcos and service providers tell a story of companies struggling--or climbing--a path fraught with risk, including the need to spend and build improved networks and services as technology and consumer demand changes.
Eric Yeaman of Hawaiian Telcom (Nasdaq: HCOM), for example, saw his total compensation shrink dramatically in 2011 as the carrier fought its way out of bankruptcy, receiving no bonus or stock awards this year (compensation that had totaled $4.76 million in 2010).
And, as FairPoint Communications (Nasdaq: FRP) climbed out of its bankruptcy and began to meet the broadband goals laid out for it by the northern New England states it serves, CEO Paul Sunu's compensation grew from 2010's almost-flat salary of $775,901 to $4.25 million in total compensation last year.
Take a look at our 15 highest-paid CEOs in 2011. Salary and compensation data comes from publicly available filings made to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. And don't forget to check out our sister publication FierceWireless' 10 highest paid executives in wireless feature, for compensation data from the heads of Ericsson (Nasdaq: ERIC), Motorola Solutions (NYSE: MSI), and more.
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Total compensation (2011): $1.03 million |
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Eric K. Yeaman, Hawaiian Telcom Total compensation (2011): $1.29 million |
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Total compensation (2011): $1.57 million |
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Total compensation (2011): $2.25 million |
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Total compensation (2011): $2.29 million |
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Total compensation (2011): £2.36 million ($3.8 million) |
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Total compensation (2011): $4.25 million |
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Total compensation (2011): $6.06 million |
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Total compensation (2011): $6.72 million |
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Total compensation (2011): $8.55 million |
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Total compensation (2011): $9.6 million |
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Total compensation (2011): $9.78 million |
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Total compensation (2011): $11.88 million |
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Total compensation (2011): $22.01 million |
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Total compensation (2011): $23.1 million |
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Ben Verwaayen, Alcatel-Lucent
David A. Wittwer, TDS Telecom
Ian Paul Livingston, BT
Paul H. Sunu, FairPoint
John F. Cassidy, Cincinnati Bell
Maggie Wilderotter, Frontier
Glen F. Post III, CenturyLink
George A. Cope, Bell Canada
Jeff Gardner, Windstream
Dan Hesse, Sprint
Randall Stephenson, AT&T
Lowell McAdam, Verizon
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