This American CEO Made $247 Million Last Year

By Douglas A. McIntyre Published Apr 13, 8:00AM EDT

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This American CEO Made $247 Million Last Year — © Walt Disney Studios Alameda Entrance (CC BY-SA 4.0) by Coolcaesar

The amount of money America CEOs make has been called obscene. It is often many hundred times what their employees earn. The trend has been particularly criticized at public corporations that pay people little more than the locally mandated minimum wage. This has included, in the recent past, such operations as McDonald’s, Starbucks, and Walmart. (These are the lowest-paying American companies.)

The median CEO pay at America’s largest companies jumped again in 2021. The Harvard Law School Forum On Corporate Governance reported that, across a sample of chief executive pay, based on SEC filings, the sum called “total direct compensation” reached $14.3 million. That was up from $12 million in 2020. That amount is minimal compared to the compensation paid to one American CEO, who made almost $247 million last year. That chief executive was Discovery’s David Zaslav, who racked up $246,573,481 including base pay, bonuses, stock option grants, and short-term incentives.

The groups most often criticized for such stratospheric pay levels are the corporate boards that set CEO pay. Many board members make large amounts of money themselves, particularly for the hours they put in. A director at a large company can make several hundred thousand dollars for a year’s worth of service.

Shareholders have no way to challenge these pay levels. New SEC rules (which took effect in 2011) say that large public companies must let shareholders have a “say on pay,” but the results of these votes are “advisory and not binding”. In other words, investors have no “say on pay” at all.

MyLogIQ, which examines public company documents using machine learning and artificial intelligence, recently looked at the CEO pay at large companies in the S&P 500. A number of America’s best-known companies made the list, including Goldman Sachs, Johnson & Johnson, Walt Disney, and Visa – though none of them paid their chief executives as well as Discovery.

Click here to see the American CEO who made $247 million last year (and other highly paid chief executives)

Discovery has become much better known in recent months. AT&T recently spun off its Warner Media assets, which include Warner Bros., HBO, and CNN. These will be merged with Discovery to form a new corporation named Warner Bros. Discovery. Zaslav will be its CEO. This will make him head of one of the largest media companies in the world. (Compare this with the biggest company the year you were born.)

The CEO of the number two company on the list of highest paid chief executives is much more famous. Tim Cook of Apple made $98,734,484 last year, when the company was the third largest on the Fortune 500, based on revenue.

Robert B Ford (CC BY-SA 4.0) by Abbott Laboratories

25. Robert B. Ford
> Company: Abbott Laboratories
> Total compensation: $24,914,886
> Salary: $1,482,692
> Stock awards: $8,689,294
> Short-term incentives: $3,168,400

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2700coastavenue (CC BY-SA 4.0) by Coolcaesar

24. Sasan K. Goodarzi
> Company: Intuit Inc
> Total compensation: $24,929,237
> Salary: $1,000,000
> Stock awards: $15,981,685
> Short-term incentives: $2,187,500

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Sanjay Mehrotra - Micron by Micron Technology

Sanjay Mehrotra - Micron (CC BY-SA 4.0) by Micron Technology

23. Sanjay Mehrotra
> Company: Micron Technology Inc
> Total compensation: $25,316,709
> Salary: $1,350,000
> Stock awards: $18,499,995
> Short-term incentives: $4,800,600

22. Charles H. Robbins
> Company: Cisco Systems, Inc.
> Total compensation: $25,446,695
> Salary: $1,416,731
> Stock awards: $19,415,798
> Short-term incentives: $4,495,816

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Ramon Laguarta (CC BY-SA 4.0) by Qwertyfry38

21. Ramon L. Laguarta
> Company: Pepsico Inc
> Total compensation: $25,506,607
> Salary: $1,542,308
> Stock awards: $8,745,056
> Short-term incentives: $6,006,640

20. Stephen J. Squeri
> Company: American Express Co
> Total compensation: $25,513,922
> Salary: $1,500,000
> Stock awards: $12,549,027
> Short-term incentives: N/A

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Darius Adamczyk (CC BY-SA 4.0) by Jeff Zelevansky

19. Darius Adamczyk
> Company: Honeywell International Inc
> Total compensation: $26,100,120
> Salary: $1,675,616
> Stock awards: $14,486,389
> Short-term incentives: $3,910,000

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18. Alex Gorsky
> Company: Johnson & Johnson
> Total compensation: $26,741,959
> Salary: $1,650,000
> Stock awards: $14,789,176
> Short-term incentives: $3,750,000

HTS Systems UPS Ground (CC BY-SA 3.0) by MobiusDaXter

17. Carol B. Tom
> Company: United Parcel Service Inc
> Total compensation: $27,620,893
> Salary: $1,336,251
> Stock awards: $23,670,426
> Short-term incentives: $1,397,139

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16. Rosalind Gates Brewer
> Company: Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc.
> Total compensation: $28,333,498
> Salary: $695,652
> Stock awards: $20,200,048
> Short-term incentives: $2,404,875

IQVIA company website page logo on laptop display with red background (CC BY 2.0) by Jernej Furman

15. Ari Bousbib
> Company: Iqvia Holdings Inc.
> Total compensation: $28,615,851
> Salary: $1,800,000
> Stock awards: $14,108,891
> Short-term incentives: $7,200,000

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14. David V. Auld
> Company: D R Horton Inc
> Total compensation: $30,571,596
> Salary: $700,000
> Stock awards: $8,145,841
> Short-term incentives: $21,425,435

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13. Vincent T. Roche
> Company: Analog Devices Inc
> Total compensation: $30,824,323
> Salary: $1,050,000
> Stock awards: $8,591,204
> Short-term incentives: $3,981,115

12. Alfred F. Kelly Jr
> Company: Visa Inc.
> Total compensation: $30,944,838
> Salary: $1,550,031
> Stock awards: $17,681,675
> Short-term incentives: $6,400,000

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Walt Disney Studios Alameda Entrance by Coolcaesar

Walt Disney Studios Alameda Entrance (CC BY-SA 4.0) by Coolcaesar

11. Robert A. Chapek
> Company: Walt Disney Co
> Total compensation: $32,464,293
> Salary: $2,500,000
> Stock awards: $10,215,466
> Short-term incentives: $14,330,000

Lennar headquarters (CC BY-SA 3.0) by Coolcaesar

9. Jonathan M. Jaffe (Co-CEO)
> Company: Lennar Corp
> Total compensation: $34,045,217
> Salary: $800,000
> Stock awards: $16,607,806
> Short-term incentives: $16,607,876

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Lennar Corp San Ramon office by Coolcaesar

Lennar Corp San Ramon office (CC BY-SA 3.0) by Coolcaesar

9. Rick Beckwitt (Co-CEO)
> Company: Lennar Corp
> Total compensation: $34,045,217
> Salary: $800,000
> Stock awards: $16,607,806
> Short-term incentives: $16,607,876

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8. Gary E. Dickerson
> Company: Applied Materials Inc
> Total compensation: $35,265,559
> Salary: $1,049,808
> Stock awards: $31,710,469
> Short-term incentives: $2,039,400

Shantanu Narayen - the CEO of Adobe Inc by Brian Cummings Photography

Shantanu Narayen - the CEO of Adobe Inc (CC BY-SA 4.0) by Brian Cummings Photography

7. Shantanu Narayen
> Company: Adobe Inc.
> Total compensation: $36,128,725
> Salary: $1,019,231
> Stock awards: $32,499,671
> Short-term incentives: $2,180,000

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6. David J. Lesar
> Company: Centerpoint Energy Inc
> Total compensation: $37,809,810
> Salary: $1,425,000
> Stock awards: $33,359,999
> Short-term incentives: $2,116,125

5. David M. Solomon
> Company: Goldman Sachs Group Inc
> Total compensation: $39,545,072
> Salary: $2,000,000
> Stock awards: $27,380,180
> Short-term incentives: N/A

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4. Thomas M. Rutledge
> Company: Charter Communications, Inc.
> Total compensation: $41,860,263
> Salary: $2,500,000
> Stock awards: 0
> Short-term incentives: $8,901,000

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Broadcom Headquarters San Jose by Coolcaesar

Broadcom Headquarters San Jose (CC BY-SA 4.0) by Coolcaesar

3. Hock E. Tan
> Company: Broadcom Inc.
> Total compensation: $60,703,627
> Salary: $1,200,000
> Stock awards: $54,056,808
> Short-term incentives: $5,400,000

Tim Cook with Chongqing Mayor Huang in Apple Jiefangbei by Junyi Lou

Tim Cook with Chongqing Mayor Huang in Apple Jiefangbei (CC BY-SA 4.0) by Junyi Lou

2. Tim D. Cook
> Company: Apple Inc
> Total compensation: $98,734,394
> Salary: $3,000,000
> Stock awards: $82,347,835
> Short-term incentives: $12,000,000

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1. David M. Zaslav
> Company: Discovery, Inc.
> Total compensation: $246,573,481
> Salary: $3,000,000
> Stock awards: $13,165,436
> Short-term incentives: $22,000,000

About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.