Blackstone Group’s Chief Executive Officer Stephen Schwarzman’s $702 million compensation made him the highest-paid executive in the U.S. last year, the Corporate Library reported.
The package included $2.3 million of compensation and almost $699.8 million from the vesting of one- quarter of the equity granted as he took the firm public at $31 a share in 2007, said the Corporate Library, which specializes in governance issues. Schwarzman, Blackstone’s founder, was granted $4.7 billion in equity at the time of the offering. Schwarzman, 62, took the world’s largest private equity firm public at the height of the market boom.
His pay package toppled Oracle Corp. CEO Larry Ellison, 64, who fell to second with $557 million, according to the survey. Ellison had $543 million in exercised stock options. His total compensation in 2007 was $193 million, according to the survey.
“Given that the other 75 percent of his $4.7 billion 2007 equity grant will vest in equal installments over the next four years, it is reasonably safe to assume that Schwarzman will remain at the top of highest-paid CEOs list, or close to it, for a few years to come,” the report said.
Seven of the top-paid executives worked for energy companies. Ray Irani of Occidental Petroleum made $222.6 million, John Hess of Hess earned $159.6 million and Michael D Watford of Ultra Petroleum Corp. took in $116.9 million, the report said. Seven of the 10 on the list made more than $100 million last year.