Chesapeake does some ’splainin…
Ever since, Cheseapeake Energy (CHK) filed its preliminary proxy last week, there’s been lots of stories — here’s one from Business Week — noting just how well paid Chairman and CEO Aubrey K. McClendon is. Those stories are likely to continue since earlier today, the Associated Press came out with its list of the highest paid CEOs. And McClendon is at the top of the list at $112.5 million.
So perhaps it’s not all that surprising that in the definitive proxy it filed yesterday, Chesapeake spent some time explaining its approach to compensation. Here’s a snip of some of the new material in yesterday’s filing:
The Compensation Committee also considered the fact that the incentive award was conditioned on a contractual commitment by Mr. McClendon to remain in his position as CEO for an additional five years, and his agreement to establish a cap on his cash salary and bonus compensation for the same five-year period. The Compensation Committee believes that Mr. McClendon’s commitment to remain in his leadership role was particularly beneficial to the Company in view of prevailing market conditions, the value of innovative transactions such as those described above in a challenging operating environment and the other entrepreneurial opportunities that currently exist in the industry.
There’s more justification throughout the filing. But let’s be honest: doesn’t this sound like Ricky telling Lucy that she’s got some ’splainin to do?
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Posted in Tags: Chairman, new disclosures, PR Spin |
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May 1st, 2009 at 10:59 am
He’s just trying to get back in the game…
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122385842864427455.html
May 1st, 2009 at 8:18 pm
Audrey you should be ashamed of yourself. The board is a buch of spineless toadies no-one put a gun to his head and made him buy all that stockon margin heads I win tails you lose corporate compensation no cprporate theft.
May 2nd, 2009 at 7:55 am
It is my understanding that Mr McClendon and Tom Ward, now of Sandridge, were the original owners of Chesapeake and took it public. If there is too much of a problem maybe they should take it private again. The current price of around $20 bucks might thrill a few people. Then they can have the upside when natgas is profitable to produce. If Mr. McClendon will get the stock price back to $70 or even over $35 in the current market I’ll vote to double his compensation from the current level with a bonus on top of that of somewhere around,say$112.5m or so. To pull a number out of the air.
It might be more productive to thank Aubrey and the toadie board for hedging their contracts so well, for being an excellent employer, and an honest payer of royalty payments to their thousands of little mineral holders. Go get em Aubrey.
I am not an employee or a mineral owner of theirs but I am a stockholder way over $20.