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.
An academic with ties to the corporate sector, Susan C. Schwab was the U.S. Trade Representative during the last years of the George W. Bush administration. She had served in a deputy capacity before being tapped for the top post, taking over for Rob Portman.
Schwab is the author of the 1994 book Trade-Offs: Negotiating the Omnibus Trade and Competitiveness Act, and she regularly discusses commerce on Bloomberg, CNBC, BBC and C-SPAN.
Since 2010, she has been an independent director of the Boeing Co. She is also a director of FedEx Corp. and Caterpillar Inc., and serves as a member of the board of advisors at Miller Buckfire & Co., LLC, an investment bank. From 2008 to 2012, Schwab made more than $3.2 million from her work on corporate boards, according to a review of public records.
Schwab previously served as a director of Petroleum & Resources Corp. from January 2000 to December 2005 and a director of corporate business development at Motorola Inc., from July 1993 to August 1995. She then went on to serve as vice chancellor of advancement and then CEO of the University System of Maryland.
From March 1989 to May 1993, she worked as an assistant secretary of commerce for the U.S. and Foreign Commercial Service. Before that she was a senior aide to former Sen. John C. Danforth (R-Mo.).
A strategic adviser at the law firm Mayer Brown LLP, Schwab was awarded a Ph.D. in public administration and international business from George Washington University, and earned degrees from Stanford University and Williams College.
From June 2009 to December 2012, if you bought shares in companies when Susan C. Schwab joined the board, and sold them when she left, you would have a 92.7 percent return on your investment, compared to a 51.3 percent return from the S&P 500.
Feb. 10, 2010 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 10 more.
June 1, 2009 to July 26, 2016
Other board members at Caterpillar during this time were Charles D. Powell, Daniel M. Dickinson, David L. Calhoun and 16 more.
June 8, 2009 to July 26, 2016
Other board members at FedEx during this time were David P. Steiner, Frederick W. Smith, Gary W. Loveman and 11 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 (2010, 2011, 2012), Caterpillar SEC filings (2009, 2010, 2011, 2012), FedEx SEC filings (2010, 2011, 2012).
By Shane Shifflett, Jay Boice, Hilary Fung and Aaron Bycoffe