An American oligarch: Former Exxon CEO leaves company with massive payout

In its financial reports submitted to the Securities and Exchange Commission this week, ExxonMobil detailed the payout to Raymond and other executives at the company in 2005. Raymond retired on December 31 after 43 years of service. He oversaw the transformation of the company into the largest, and perhaps the most ruthless, privately held energy company in the world.

Raymond’s compensation package for 2005 was about $70 million. This includes $4 million in base salary, $4.9 million in bonuses, $32.1 million in restricted stock allocations, $7.5 million as part of a long-term incentive plan, and $21.2 million in exercised stock options.

On top of this, Raymond walked away from the company with a lump sum pension payout of $98 million (he elected to receive the sum up front rather than distributed over the remainder of his life). The company filing also reported that Raymond owns in total about $183 million in restricted stock (including what he received in 2005) and stock options valued at another $70 million.

All together: $400 million, give or take a million dollars or two. This is on the order of 10,000 times what an average American worker can hope to earn in a year.

As with many of the most highly paid executives, a great bulk of Raymond’s compensation comes in the form of company stock or stock options (see “CEO pay continues its relentless climb”). Restricted stock is company stock that includes certain constraints, generally requiring that it be held for a period of three or four years before being sold. In 2005, Raymond received more than $3 million in dividends paid out to his restricted stocks, an amount that he can expect to receive on a yearly basis so long as he holds on to them.

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http://wsws.org/articles/2006/apr2006/exxn-a15.shtml