CEO pay is determined by a company’s board of directors. Those directors are compensated for the time they spend shaping the company’s strategy. Here’s what the Fortune 100 executives paid each other from 2008 to 2012.
Kenneth M. Duberstein, a permanent Washington fixture and president of the Duberstein Group, is best known for serving as President Ronald Reagan's chief of staff from 1988 to 1989.
“The standard line on Duberstein is that he spent six and a half months as Reagan’s chief of staff and 24 years (and counting) dining out on it," Mark Leibovich wrote in This Town.
Duberstein served as a White House legislative affairs assistant from 1981 to 1983 before he passed through the proverbial "revolving door," leaving to become the vice president of lobbying firm Timmons & Company. Duberstein returned to the White House as Reagan's deputy chief of staff in 1987 before his promotion to chief of staff.
Since then, Duberstein has enjoyed lucrative posts on countless boards of directors. He has served on the boards of Boeing (1997-present), Dell (2011-present) and ConocoPhillips (2000-2012). Duberstein made nearly $3.9 million in compensation between 2008 and 2012 from these companies. Their CEO pay increased by $3.5 million on average during that time period. Boeing's CEO pay rose to over $27 million in 2012.
From 1998 to 2007, Duberstein served on the board of directors at Fannie Mae, where he consulted on legislative and regulatory issues. His firm was paid $375,000 annually.
Duberstein has also served on the board of directors at The St. Paul Travelers Companies, Inc. since 1998 and Mack-Cali Realty since 2005, and is a founding member of the board at the Promontory Interfinancial Network. He is a trustee at the Brookings Institution, the Kennedy Center and the Hudson Institute, a think-tank that promotes free-market principles globally.
Duberstein also serves as a trustee at Franklin and Marshall College, where he received a bachelors degree in 1965, and previously served as a trustee at Johns Hopkins University. He serves on the board of the University of Arizona's National Institute for Civil Discourse.
In addition, Duberstein has served on boards at the Council on Foreign Relations, National Alliance to End Homelessness, National Endowment for Democracy and Partnership for Public Service.
Duberstein received a masters degree at American University in 1966. Before joining the Reagan administration, Duberstein was a vice president at the the Committee for Economic Development.
The Reaganite served as an adviser to Sen. John McCain's (R-Ariz.) presidential campaign in 2000. After he endorsed then-Sen. Barack Obama's (D-Ill.) campaign for president over McCain in 2008, McCain advisers claimed that Duberstein had lobbied for a job as the Republican's transition director -- a charge Duberstein denied.
From January 2008 to December 2012, if you bought shares in companies when Kenneth M. Duberstein joined the board, and sold them when he left, you would have a -32.1 percent return on your investment, compared to a -2.8 percent return from the S&P 500.
Jan. 1, 1997 to July 26, 2016
Other board members at Boeing during this time were Arthur D. Collins, Jr., David L. Calhoun, Edmund P. Giambastiani, Jr. and 13 more.
Sept. 8, 2011 to July 26, 2016
Other board members at Dell during this time were Alex J. Mandl, Donald J. Carty, Gerard J. Kleisterlee and 9 more.
Aug. 1, 2002 to May 1, 2012
Other board members at ConocoPhillips during this time were Bobby S. Shackouls, Charles C. Krulak, Harald J. Norvik and 15 more.
The Pay Pals project relies on financial research conducted by the Center for Economic Policy and Research.
* Year where CEO pay is prorated because they were an employee before or after their tenure as CEO.
Sources: Google Finance, Yahoo Finance, Boeing SEC filings (2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012), Dell SEC filings (2011, 2012), ConocoPhillips SEC filings (2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012).
By Shane Shifflett, Jay Boice, Hilary Fung and Aaron Bycoffe