- Reebok chief financial officer Kenneth Watchmaker may have received a 2003 bonus that was 37 percent smaller than the year before, but he also made nearly $7.8 million from exercising stock options and selling the underlying shares. Altogether, he earned more than $9.1 for the year.
- Guidant CFO Keith Brauer took home nearly $5.3 million from exercising options. Altogether, he earned a little more than $5.7 million last year, including salary and bonus.
- Robert Bahash, CFO of McGraw-Hill Cos., netted more than $1.5 million from exercising options. Add this to his salary, bonus, long-term incentive payouts, and other compensation — most of it related to a defined contribution pension plan — and his total package last year came to more than $3.3 million.
- General Dynamics CFO Michael Mancuso made more than $1.2 million from exercising options. He also received $985,000 in salary and bonus and an additional $468,000 in restricted stock awards. His total package, including a few smaller components, came to $2.7 million.
- Aetna CFO Alan Bennett made nearly $1.7 million from options on top of $839,000 in salary and bonus.
- Rambus CFO Robert Eulau took home nearly $1.2 million from options.
- Finance executives at small companies reaped big gains from options, too. For example, Norman Robertson, CFO of Progress Software, which has a market cap of just $800 million, made more than $1.4 million from exercising options last year. His salary and bonus came to $430,000.
