Alphabet said in a regulatory filing that CEO Sundar Pichai was awarded US$281-million (R5.4-billion) in compensation last year, making him one of the world’s highest-paid executives.
Most of the package is stock awards, some of which will be paid out depending on Alphabet’s stock return relative to other companies in the S&P 100 index. That means his haul can become significantly smaller, or much bigger. Pichai’s annual salary was $650 000 in 2019, according to a proxy statement filed with regulators on Friday. The company has said that will rise to $2-million this year.
The CEO’s compensation is 1 085 times the median total pay of Alphabet employees, the company also said in the filing.
Pichai took over as CEO of Alphabet from Larry Page at the end of last year as Page and co-founder Sergey Brin stepped away from the company. Now, the 47-year-old executive will have to navigate Alphabet through the coronavirus crisis and economic recession. Pichai has already cut back significantly on hiring and investment plans for the year.
This year, Alphabet’s board changed the companies it compares itself to when it decides how to determine compensation. It added Netflix, Comcast and Salesforce.com, while removing HP and Qualcomm. Also on the list: Apple, Amazon.com and Facebook. — Reported by Gerrit De Vynck and Anders Melin, (c) 2020 Bloomberg LP
