The Top Paid CEOs in America made $1.57B in 2009; Meet the $148M Man

The Wall Street Journal reports on the compensation of 200 CEOs in the U.S. in 2009. The total of the 200 CEOs listed is $1.578B. The 200 U. S. companies listed had their fiscal year 2009 revenue of at least $4 billion and filed their proxy statements between October 2009 and Sept. 30, 2010. The list is not finalized.

Meet the $148M man:



1. Ray Irani, Occidental Petroleum Corp. Mr. Irani was awarded total direct compensation of $52.2 million. According to the article, these figures do not includes $96.5 million that Mr. Irani gained last year through exercising stock options and vesting of restricted stock.

On the plus side, he would have made a lot more money this year if he had sold now that oil is trading much higher.

2. Robert Iger, Disney, received total direct compensation of $20.8 million.

3. Samuel Palmisano, IBM, received total compensation of $20.1 million, mostly from $13.5 million in stock awards

4. William Weldon, Johnson & Johnson. Total direct compensation: $19.8 million

5. Jay Fishman, Travelers, $19.5 million.

6. Randall Stephenson, AT&T, $19.4 million.

7. Robert Stevens, Lockheed Martin $19 million.

8. Miles White, Abbott Labs, $18.8 million.

9. John Stumpf, Wells Fargo, $18.7 million.

10. James McNerney Jr., Boeing,$16.8 million.