More CFOs Get Rich on Options

Exercised stock options continue to play a big role in the compensation gains of top finance executives, as detailed in proxy filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

For example, last year W. Thomas Forrester, vice president and CFO at insurance company Progressive Corp., earned $5.5 million, including a $944,000 bonus and nearly $1 million in restricted stock. However, the bulk of his earnings — more than $3 million — came from exercising stock options and then selling the underlying shares.

W. Randolph Baker, vice president and CFO of Anheuser-Busch, took home about $3.6 million last year, including about $2.26 million from exercising options.

Adobe senior vice president and CFO Murray Demo made about $4.9 million, more than $4 million of which came from exercising options.

Stock options played a big role at midsize companies as well. For example, Guitar Center executive vice president, CFO, and secretary Bruce Ross made nearly $1.1 million, more than half from exercising options.

Other 2003 compensation packages for CFOs:

• Coca-Cola Enterprises senior vice president and CFO Patrick Mannelly earned about $2 million. Compared with the prior year, however, his bonus was cut by 35 percent and his value of his restricted-stock award was reduced by 22 percent.

• National City Corp. executive vice president and CFO Jeffrey Kelly earned more than $2 million, including $773,423 from exercising stock options and a bonus of $620,000, an increase of more than 20 percent from the prior year.

• Eli Lilly executive vice president and CFO Charles Golden took home nearly $1.3 million. That includes a bonus of more than $444,000; in 2002, he received no bonus.

• EMC executive vice president and CFO William Teuber Jr. enjoyed a compensation package worth nearly $3.3 million, keyed by a restricted stock award worth nearly $2 million. In addition, his bonus more than tripled from the prior year, to $700,000.

• Pfizer executive vice president and CFO David Shedlarz took home nearly $3.5 million, including more than $1.2 million from long-term compensation plans.