The Great Recession may have taken a bite out of many Connecticut businesses, but it certainly didn’t put a crimp in the earning power of the two top leaders at Stanley Black and Decker. The New Britain tool giant paid more than $70 million to its two top executives, putting them atop this year’s iteration of the Hartford Business Journal list of highest paid executives in Connecticut.
John Lundgren, the president and CEO, is atop the list with total compensation of $32,730,259 in 2010. The biggest chunk of that — $25,347,725 — came in stock awards on top of his salary of $1,208,433. He also received a payment of $4,342,800 as part of a non-equity incentive plan. All in all, that represents a 241 percent gain over his 2009 total compensation of $9,602,517.
In second place is Nolan Archibald, executive chairman of Stanley, with a 2010 total compensation package of $28,236,565. The bulk of that is $19,665,004 in stock option awards. He also received stock valued at $3,325,031 on top of his salary of $1,187,500.
Stanley acquired rival Black & Decker Corp. in March 2010. Archibald is the former CEO of Black & Decker.
James Loree, executive vice president and chief operating officer at Stanley Black and Decker, also made the list, coming in ninth with a total compensation package of $19,242,903.
That level of executive compensation caught the attention of Stanley Black and Decker stockholders. At the company’s annual meeting in April, 53 percent of stockholders voted against the executive pay packages. One was Connecticut State Treasurer Denise L. Nappier, who as the fiduciary for the state’s pension and investment portfolio, has long championed for Stanley and other public companies to provide their shareholders more transparency as to what — and how much — they pay their executives. It was an advisory vote in which the company is under no obligation to change anything. However, a law firm has begun an investigation into whether Stanley executives breached their fiduciary responsibility to shareholders.
Elsewhere on the list, five other Connecticut executives had total compensation above the $20 million mark in 2010, led by Jeffrey Kindler, former chairman and CEO of Pfizer in New London, and William R. Berkley, chairman and CEO of WR Berkley Corp. in Greenwich. Each had more than $24 million in total compensation.
The biggest advance was posted by Liam McGee, chairman, president and CEO with The Hartford Financial Services Group. His total compensation of $10,601,860 represents a 2,833 percent gain over his 2009 total compensation of $361,450. Stock awards valued at $7,266,667 made up the bulk of his compensation. Overall, he was No. 17 on the list.
Seven of the 25 top earners reported lower earnings than they had a year earlier. Mark Bertolini, president of Aetna in Hartford, had total compensation of $8,808,852, down 30 percent from the $12,627,800 he earned in 2009. Others posting lower total compensation include Joseph Zubretsky, executive vice president and CFO of Aetna, down 10 percent. Two vice chairmen of General Electric in Fairfield — John Rice and Michael Neal — each reported a 7 percent decline in total compensation, each finishing with more than $14 million.
In terms of straight salary, Jeffrey Immelt, chairman and CEO of GE, led the list at $3.3 million. Ian Read, president and CEO of Pfizer, posted the largest change to deferred compensation at $10,976,628.
Immelt and Louis Chenevert, chairman and CEO at United Technologies in Hartford, shared honors for the largest bonus at $4 million each. Four GE vice chairmen also posted bonuses in excess of $3 million each but, overall, bonuses appeared to be a casualty of The Great Recession. Among the top 25 earners, 18 received no bonus at all.
Chenevert had placed second on last year’s list with a 2009 total compensation of $20,501,712. That trailed only George David, the retired UTC chairman who posted total compensation of $26,259,028, most of which came as ‘other compensation’ under a retirement agreement.
Of the top 25, 20 received stock awards, 19 received stock options and 20 received payments under non-equity incentive plans.
Information for the 2010 list was gathered from company proxy statements by Sara Reynolds, research director for the Hartford Business Journal.
