Financial News

Paycheck of Top-Paid CEO in US: $102.2M

Honors go to First Data Corp.'s Frank Bisignano of Ga.; other states' CEOs do well, too

By Newser Editors and Wire Services

In this Oct. 15, 2015, file photo, First Data Corp. CEO Frank Bisignano is interviewed on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. At $102.2 million, Bisignano was the top-paid CEO in Georgia for 2017, as calculated by the AP and Equilar, an executive data firm.   (AP Photo/Richard Drew, File)

Les Moonves made $68.4 million in 2017 as the CEO of CBS, but New York didn't claim the highest-paid CEO in the country last year—Georgia did, with First Data's Frank J. Bisignano bringing in a $102.2 million paycheck.


The AP and Equilar, an executive data firm, conducted a survey to determine the top-paid CEOs by state for 2017, considering only publicly traded companies with more than $1 billion in revenue that filed their proxy statements with federal regulators between Jan. 1 and April 30. Not every state had a publicly traded company headquartered there that was large enough to be included. The survey includes only CEOs who've been in place for at least two years. To calculate CEO pay, Equilar adds salary, bonus, stock awards, stock option awards, deferred compensation, and other components that include benefits and perks. Here, the highest-paid CEOs for each included state, along with what they made last year:

• Alabama: OB Grayson Hall Jr., Regions Financial; $9.4 million
• Arkansas: C. Douglas McMillon, Walmart; $22.8 million
• Arizona: Richard C. Adkerson, Freeport-McMoRan; $16.2 million
• California: Michael Rapino, Live Nation Entertainment; $70.6 million
• Colorado: Gregory B. Maffei, Liberty Media & Qurate Retail Group; $67.6 million
• Connecticut: Mark T. Bertolini, Aetna; $18.7 million
• Washington, DC: Thomas P. Joyce, Danaher; $14.8 million
• Delaware: Herve Hoppenot, Incyte; $16.1 million
• Florida: Brian D. Jellison, Roper Technologies; $29.2 million
• Georgia: Frank J. Bisignano, First Data; $102.2 million
• Hawaii: Constance H. Lau, Hawaiian Electric Industries; $5.4 million
• Iowa: Daniel J. Houston, Principal Financial Group; $9.4 million
• Idaho: Thomas K. Corrick , Boise Cascade; $4.1 million
• Illinois: Debra A. Cafaro, Ventas; $25.3 million
• Indiana: N. Thomas Linebarger, Cummins; $13.2 million
• Kansas: Michael J. Brown, Euronet Worldwide; $3.9 million
• Kentucky: Scott L. Thompson, Tempur Sealy International; $18 million
• Louisiana: Glen F. Post III, CenturyLink; $14.3 million (Post retired at the company's annual meeting this month)
• Michigan: Mary T. Barra, General Motors; $21.9 million
• Minnesota: James M. Cracchiolo, Ameriprise Financial; $22.4 million
• Massachusetts: Stephen Kaufer, TripAdvisor; $43.2 million
• Maryland: David M. Zaslav, Discovery Communications; $42.2 million
• Maine: Melissa D. Smith, WEX; $10.8 million
• Missouri: Michael F. Neidorff, Centene; $25.3 million
• Mississippi: Joe F. Sanderson Jr., Sanderson Farms; $6.6 million
• North Carolina: Brian T. Moynihan, Bank of America; $21.4 million
• North Dakota: David L. Goodin, MDU Resources Group; $3.7 million
• Nebraska: Lance M. Fritz, Union Pacific; $11.3 million
• New Hampshire: Timothy McGrath, PC Connection; $1.6 million
• New Jersey: Alex Gorsky, Johnson & Johnson; $23 million
• New Mexico: Patricia K. Collawn, PNM Resources; $4.4 million
• Nevada: Stephen A. Wynn, Wynn Resorts; $34.5 million (Wynn left the CEO position in February)
• New York: Leslie Moonves, CBS; $68.4 million
• Ohio: W. Nicholas Howley, TransDigm Group; $61 million
• Oklahoma: Robert D. Lawler, Chesapeake Energy; $14.9 million
• Oregon: Bryan B. DeBoer, Lithia Motors; $5.9 million
• Pennsylvania: Brian L. Roberts, Comcast; $32.5 million
• Rhode Island: Scott C. Donnelly, Textron; $13.1 million
• South Carolina: John D. Williams, Domtar; $7 million
• South Dakota: David R. Emery, Black Hills; $3.4 million
• Tennessee: Mark J. Costa, Eastman Chemical; $14 million
• Texas: Randall L. Stephenson, AT&T; $25.6 million
• Utah: Harris H. Simmons, Zions; $3.2 million
• Virginia: Phebe N. Novakovic, General Dynamics; $21.2 million
• Washington: John J. Legere, T-Mobile US; $23.6 million
• Wisconsin: Jonas Prising, ManpowerGroup Inc.; $12 million