Houston executive pay packages swell by over 30% (while US average CEO pay drops 16%)

[elehhhhna]

July 19, 2008, 12:38AM
Houston executive pay packages swell by over 30%


By LYNN COOK
Copyright 2008 Houston Chronicle
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The soaring energy industry took top executives along for the ride last year, lifting pay an average 31 percent for leaders of publicly traded companies in town even as the national economy soured, according to the Chronicle's annual survey.

"If you happen to be in today's energy sector — specifically in Houston — you're probably looking at a pretty nice pay package," said Brent Longnecker, head of compensation consulting firm Longnecker & Associates, which evaluated some 700 local executive pay packages for this report.

ConocoPhillips Chairman and CEO James Mulva tops this year's list with total compensation for 2007 of $50.5 million. That includes annual salary, bonus and cash incentive pay as well as long-term grants of stock, options and other perks. Among those were $10,500 for a home security system and an allowance of $35,309 a year for personal use of the company's aircraft, also related to security.

Average total compensation in 2007 for the top 100 executives at public companies in the Houston area was $8.1 million, compared with $6.2 million in 2006, according to documents the companies filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission and which Longnecker & Associates analyzed.

Longnecker examined reports by 145 publicly traded Houston-area companies with revenue of at least $100 million.

Houston executives appear to have enjoyed a better year of paydays than their counterparts in other places. The average total compensation of chief executives at 350 leading U.S. companies dropped 16 percent last year, according to a recent report by human resources firm Mercer.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/business/5896523.html

[Catherine Vincent]

1. I checked the pay of our CEOs where I work and it's not nearly as

much as the $50 million. So we're good.