The Compensation Kings
The NYT has a fascinating chart on top executive compensation for 2008. I’m always surprised these lists exclude sports stars, who are more easily understood as entrepreneurs than athletes, and whose compensation, including endorsements, often trumps that of the titans of corporate America.
For fun, I’ve cross-compiled the NYT data with Sports Illustrated’s “Fortunate 50” 2008 sports compensation list to come up with a Top-25 of my own:
Athlete/CEO: Total Compensation in Millions
1) Tiger Woods, PGA: $128
2) Sanjay K. Jha, Motorola: $104
3) Larry Ellison, Orace: $84.6
4) Phil Mickelson, PGA: $62
5) Robert Iger, Disney: $51
6) Kenneth Chenault, American Express: $42
7) LeBron James, NBA: $40
8) Floyd Mayweather, Boxing: $40
9) Vikram Pandit, Citigroup: $38
10) Kobe Bryant, NBA: $35
11) Shaq, NBA: $35
12) Alex Rodriquez, MLB: $35
13) Mark Hurd, Hewlett-Packard: $34
14) Jack Fusco, Calpine: $33
15) Kevin Garnett, NBA: $31
16) Peyton Manning, NFL: $31
17) Rupert Murdoch, NewsCorp: $30
18) Derek Jeter, MLB: $30
19) David Cote, Honeywell: $28
20) Dale Earnhardt, Jr., NASCAR: $27
21) Alan Iverson, NBA: $27
22) Alan Lafley, Proctor & Gamble: $26
23) Kevin Durant, NBA: $26
24) Jeff Gordon, NASCAR: $25
25) Ben Roethlisberger, NFL: $25