New Freddie Mac CEO hits the compensation jackpot
Posted Oct 3rd 2009 2:40PM by Connie Madon
Filed under: Deals, Management, Competitive strategy, Employees, Personal finance, Financial Crisis
Freddie Mac has a new CEO and his name is Ross Kari. Can you guess his compensation? Is it reasonable in light of the fact that Freddie Mac is controlled by the government?
In these days when we have 5.4 million people who have been on unemployment for at least six months, Kari's compensation is $5.5 million, which includes $2 million as a signing on bonus and a generous salary of $2.3 million.
Freddie Mac was bailed out by the government to the tune of $51 billion and more bailout money may be needed. Outside pay experts are outraged. Paul Hodgson of The Corporate Library said: "We are in a period when this shouldn't be acceptable. ... Even if pay is competitive to the market, that doesn't make it OK today."
Kari comes from Fifth Third Bancorp (NASDAQ: FITB). His compensation there was $580,000 and he received a $100,000 signing bonus. Fifth Third received $3.4 billion in TARP money, so it was not 100% pure and clean of mismanagement.
Do you believe that Kari's compensation is over the top in this economy? |
