Several Colorado executives reported gains in compensation last year far beyond the state average.
Kenneth Tuchman, chief executive at TeleTech Holdings, reported the biggest jump in pay last year, a 10-fold-plus increase from what he made in 2009 and 2008.
Most of that came from an award of 300,000 shares of TeleTech stock valued at $5.5 million. Tuchman’s base salary is $350,000.
The award came even though TeleTech shares were flat last year and revenues and income have fallen the past two years.
Daniel Yergin, a senior adviser at IHS, received a 509-percent increase in pay last year after renegotiating his employment contract.
The firm, which specializes in analysis, said replacing the Pulitzer Prize-winning author and famed energy authority would be difficult.
“His skills and expertise cannot be found elsewhere,” IHS said in its proxy.
Liberty Media, Liberty Global and Allied Motion were other companies that passed on outsize increases to their executives last year.
Companies are increasingly requiring executives to hit specific targets to obtain stock and option awards granted them, said Jim Sillery, a principal with Buck Consultants out of Chicago.
That is a big change from vesting stock grants on set anniversary dates. Clawback provisions that strip away compensation for fraud or short-sighted decisions that create long-term harm also are becoming more common.
Still, retired executive-compensation attorney Kirk Maldonado said clawback provisions so far look pretty weak. And chief executives retain too much power to appoint directors who will determine their pay.
“If the company does well, I make a ton of money,” Maldonado said. “If it does poorly, I still make a ton of money.”
Executive compensation has risen disproportionately when compared with increases in corporate profits and stock prices, which in turn are rising more than can be justified by growth in the U.S. economy, he said.
But that doesn’t mean there aren’t executives who hit the ball out of the park and are rewarded handsomely.
Chipotle Mexican Grill co-CEOs Steve Ells and Monty Moran have overseen one of the most successful companies to go public in the U.S. so far this century.
The two saw 120-percent and 142-percent jumps in pay, respectively, last year, vaulting them into the ranks of the state’s highest- paid executives.
But investors didn’t miss out, with a 141.2-percent increase in the company’s stock last year.
Aldo Svaldi: 303-954-1410 or asvaldi@denverpost.com
Big paydays get bigger
Several executives received big boosts in compensation in 2010, putting them into the ranks of the state’s highest-paid.
1. Richard Weil, CEO, Janus Capital: $20.34 million
Last year’s ranking: Not ranked
2. Charles Tanabe, general counsel, Liberty Media: $18.77 million
Last year: 21
3. W. Gene Musselman, President and COO, Liberty Global: $16.53 million
Last year: 23
4. Kent Thiry, Chairman and CEO, DaVita: $14.12 million
Last year: 3
5. Steve Ells, Chairman and co-CEO, Chipotle Mexican Grill: $14.10 million
Last year: 13
6. Edward Mueller, Chairman and CEO, Qwest Communications $13.46 million
Last year: 2
7. Monty Moran, Co-CEO, Chipotle Mexican Grill: $13.45 million
Last year: 17
8. Daniel Yergin, EVP and adviser, IHS Inc.: $12.71 million
Last year: 35
9. Richard T. O’Brien, CEO and president, Newmont Mining: $12.51 million
Last year: 12
10. Michael Fries, CEO and president, Liberty Global: $12.32 million
Last year: 42
11. Teresa A. Taylor, COO, Qwest Communications $10.71 million
Last year: 16
12. R. David Hoover, Chairman and CEO, Ball Corp.: $10.47 million
Last year: 4
