Former Sprint Nextel CEO leaves the company in disarray with $40 million.
BOTTOM LINE: Forget the old saying that "Parting is great sorrow..." Sprint CEO Gary Forsee, who was the catalyst for numerous employee layoffs at Sprint and a huge stock loss, was forced to step down. However, he did so to the tune of $40 million, according to the Kansas City Star. The Star's Dianne Stafford has written an insightful column (below) trying to make sense of it all. Since leaving Sprint Forsee was appointed President of the University of Missouri. 03-27-2008
TRIVIA: In 1976 the average CEO was paid 36 times as much as the average worker. By 1993, the average CEO was paid 131 times as much. Today the average CEO makes about 369 times as much as the average worker. --Dan Ariely, "Predictably Irrational" Sprint's Forsee received $40 million in 2007 By JASON GERTZEN, The Kansas City Star Former Sprint Nextel Chief Executive Officer Gary Forsee received $40 million from the company in 2007. Forsee, who stepped down in October under pressure from investors and his board, received the compensation in pay, stock awards and other benefits, according to documents Sprint filed Thursday with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Dan Hesse, who took charge as Sprint’s CEO in mid-December, received pay, bonuses and other benefits totaling $2.99 million in 2007.
$40 million to the CEO, pink slips to thousands Once again, it's hard to get my head around the concept. How can it possibly be justified that an ousted CEO merited $40 million in compensation last year? Plus nearly $1 million annually as long as he lives! The latest disclosure, from Sprint Nextel, is just another in a long line of inexplicable CEO pay packages. In heaven's name: How much is enough? And how many of the former Sprint Nextel workers that I meet at job loss support groups might still have their comparatively puny paychecks if executive pay wasn't so outlandishly excessive? Sure, any big company executive officer has the right to a hefty pay package. Talent. Risk. Rewards. You know the reasoning. But where does it stop? How can corporate directors, and their subset compensation committees, keep doing this? Pay for performance? Yes. Pay for nonperformance? Yuck. It's a rare worker bee in today's work world that has a severance package or even retirement security, given concerns about Social Security and company pensions. Worker bees are being told to take some of their own pay each month and save for their own retirements. The disparity overwhelms me. Link: http://www.typepad.com/t/trackback/1085432/27552326
