Factbox-Battles over CEO pay across the globe
(Reuters) -A majority of Salesforce shareholders voted against a compensation plan for CEO Marc Benioff and other top executives, according to a security filing on Monday.
Benioff received $39.6 million in total compensation for fiscal year 2024, up from $29.9 million in the prior year.
Below are other CEO pay packages that have faced a tough fight:
Year Company Description
2024 Tesla A Delaware judge in January voided
Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s $56 billion pay
package, calling it as
“unfathomable.” Shareholders, in
June, approved the package, despite
opposition from some large
institutional investors and proxy
firms.
2024 AstraZeneca Over a third of AstraZeneca’s
investors opposed its 2024 pay
policy, which will boost CEO Pascal
Soriot’s remuneration to as much as
18.9 million pounds. It won the
backing, however, of the required
majority of votes.
2024 3M In May, 3M shareholders voted down
the annual compensation packages of
certain executives, including that of
former CEO Mike Roman.
2024 BlackRock BlackRock’s executive pay, including
that of CEO Larry Fink, won narrow
support from shareholders, with about
42% of votes cast opposing it.
2024 Boohoo UK-based Boohoo Group’s bosses waived
their annual bonuses in May and
scrapped plans to raise executive
awards after backlash from
shareholders.
2023 BP Former CEO Bernard Looney had more
than $40 million cut in his
compensation after the British oil
giant concluded he misled the board
over personal relationships with
colleagues.
2023 Telecom Shareholders rejected Telecom
Italia Italia’s pay policy after top
investor Vivendi criticized criteria
to award bonus payments to CEO Pietro
Labriola.
2022 Intel Intel shareholders rejected
compensation packages for top
executives, including a payout of as
much as $178.6 million to CEO Pat
Gelsinger.
2021 Rio Tinto Rio Tinto shareholders rejected the
miner’s executive pay packages, in a
backlash over its destruction of
ancient rock shelters in Western
Australia the previous year.
2021 McDonald’s Former CEO Steve Easterbrook agreed
to return compensation worth $105
million in equity awards and cash to
settle a lawsuit over alleged lies
about affairs.
2021 GE GE shareholders rejected executives’
compensation packages, including a
payout of as much as $230 million to
CEO Larry Culp.
2021 Morrisons Investors in the British supermarket
group overwhelmingly rejected its pay
report in 2021.
2021 Halliburton More than half of Halliburton’s
shareholders voted against its
proposed executive compensation plan.
2021 UniCredit The Italian bank’s boss, Andrea
Orcel, narrowly avoided a shareholder
revolt against his pay package,
securing only 54% of votes at a
general meeting after top investor
BlackRock voted against it.
2019 CBS CBS Corp fired Leslie Moonves for
cause and denied a $120 million
severance package after the former
chief executive was accused of sexual
harassment and assault that allegedly
took place before and after he joined
the company.
2017 Uber Travis Kalanick, Uber’s co-founder
and CEO, was forced to resign after a
series of scandals plagued the
company, including allegations of
sexual harassment and a toxic
workplace culture. Shareholders later
sued the board, alleging it failed to
properly oversee Kalanick and allowed
the scandals to occur.
2017 Equifax After a massive data breach exposed
millions of customers’ personal
information, Equifax’s CEO received
significant criticism for his
handling of the crisis and a hefty
bonus. Shareholders filed suit
alleging the board failed to properly
oversee the CEO.
2017 BP BP cut CEO Bob Dudley’s 2016 pay
package by 40% after a wave of
shareholder revolts.
2016 Viacom A shareholder lawsuit claimed that
Viacom and CBS Corp’s executive
chairman, Sumner Redstone, was
improperly paid millions though “he
was physically and mentally
incapacitated.”
2011 Occidental Occidental Petroleum CEO Ray
Petroleum Irani was criticized for excessive
pay after his compensation grew 40%
in 2009 to $31.4 million.
Shareholders pushed for board seats.
2002 Worldcom After an accounting scandal that led
to financial fraud, shareholders sued
the company over excessive
compensation awarded to executives,
including the CEO.
(Reporting by Priyanka.G, Anchal Rana, Yadarisa Shabong and Jaspreet Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Aditya Soni, Devika Syamnath, ,Matthew Lewis, Miral Fahmy and Sriraj Kalluvila)