Feature The Industry Rich List
Company reports show three publishing execs took home earnings in eight figures in the fiscal year 2016. Tom Tivnan reports
The Millionaire boys’ club
T
HREE CHIEF EXECUTIVES of book industry conglomerates had compensation packages which exceeded the equivalent of $10m last year, puting them in the upper eche- lon of the c.e.o. remuneration league for all industries, not just publishing and bookselling. Unsurprisingly, all of the $10m- plus c.e.o.s lead businesses at the very top of global publishing’s league table: Erik Engstrom, who took home £10.5m ($14.2m) at RELX, the world’s second-biggest publisher; James Smith ($13.4m) heads up third- placed ThomsonReuters; while Nancy McKinstry (€11.3m, or $13.3m) is the boss of fourth-placed Wolters Kluwer. Our c.e.o. pay chart can be seen as an indicative snapshot and not a truly comprehensive view of global execu- tive pay, owing to some data gaps. Regulations vary from country to country, but generally private compa- nies are not compelled to publicly reveal compensation packages for their heads (In Britain, companies are required to show their top direc- tor’s pay—but that person need not be named). Presumably, Thomas Rabe and Markus Dohle are on whop- ping great pay packages, but Bertels- mann and its Penguin Random House subsidiary are not required to disclose what their respective bosses earn. The chart also rather unfairly shines a light on the UK and North American publicly traded companies as regula- tory provisions require somewhat robust executive compensation data;
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only three of the 20 c.e.o.s here are from firms headquartered outside the Anglophone world. The chart is executive compensa- tion for the 2016 fiscal year as per companies’ annual reports, not net worth, which is why Amazon’s Jeff Bezos is 16th on the list with a meagre $1.7m. In July this year, it was widely reported that the Amazon founder’s fortune hit $90.6bn, enough for him to surpass Bill Gates as the richest person in the world following a spike in his company’s share price. This lasted only a few hours as Amazon’s stock dipped the next day, but the calculations were based on Bezos’ 79.9 million shares in Amazon stock (meaning he owns roughly 17% of the company). At this writing, Forbes has poor old Bezos’ net worth down to just
Erik Engstrom above leads the Industry Rich List, which has a noticably modest remuneration for the world’s third-richest man Jeff Bezos far right. Meanwhile, Nancy McKinstry right is one of only two women in the top 20
12th October 2017
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