Henry R. Silverman, former chairman and chief executive officer of the Cendant conglomerate, may wind up with $110 million in severance once he has cut all ties with the company’s various spin-offs, reports the Associated Press. Last August Cendant broke into four separate companies: Realogy, Avis Budget Group, Wyndham Worldwide, and Travelport.
Silverman received a severance package worth $62.53 million when he left Avis, according to the company’s proxy filed earlier this week, including a lump-sum cash payment of more than $21.6 million. He is also qualified to receive a $50 million lump sum when he retires from Realogy, which he plans to do at year-end, according to the AP.
Silverman’s roots are distinctly Wall Street. In the 1960s, he spent time as an investment banker with White, Weld, which was later acquired by Merrill Lynch; during the 1980s, he learned about leveraged buyouts from financier Saul Steinberg, chairman and CEO of Reliance Group Holdings.
Patrick McGurn, executive vice president at proxy adviser Institutional Shareholder Services, told the wire service Silverman was “overpaid,” noting “he was paid for putting all these deals together; now he’s getting paid for taking them apart.”