Elon Musk is highest-paid chief executive: Meet the other top-grossing CEOs

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HIGHEST-PAID EXECUTIVE: Elon Musk of Telsa is currently on top of the CEO pay list, having received $6.66 billion executive pay in 2020, according to Bloomberg. On November 15, 2021, Reuters reported that Musk sold $930 million in shares to meet tax withholding obligations to the US related to the exercise of stock options, based on US securities filings. That day, Musk sold 934,091 shares after exercising options to buy 2.1 million stocks at $6.24 each. Image Credit: AFP

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TWITTER POLL: On October 29, 2021, Musk became the first person to be worth more than $300 billion, making him the first person on the planet to reach that milestone. In the last two weeks, Musk has sold nearly $9 billion worth of Tesla but he’s just halfway toward selling 10% of his stake. On November 6, he ran a poll on Twitter whether he must sell 10% of his Tesla stock or not: 3.5 million tweeps voted, with 57.9% clicking “Yes”. Image Credit: Reuters

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PHENOMENAL PAY: The top earners on the Equilar 200 list are often recipients of multi-year equity grants intended to pay out over an extended time period, and 2020 was no different. These awards are reported to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) as a total value based on the stock price on the date they are granted, regardless of the time horizon on which they may be earned. Following are the top-grossing CEOs in 2020, based on Equilar list: Image Credit: Twitter

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COMPENSATION: In most corporations, CEO pay is chiefly awarded through stocks — or the rights to earn shares of company stock — through continued service (time-based) or by meeting targets/benchmarks (performance-based). Image Credit: Gulf News / Social Media

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Alexander Karp: $1.098 billion | Company: Palantir Technologies (PLTR) | Industry: Software Image Credit: Twitter

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Tony Xu: $413.6 million | Company: Doordash (DASH) | Industry: Food delivery Image Credit:

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Eric Wu: $370,240,992 Company: Opendoor Technologies (OPEN) | Industry: Real Estate Image Credit:

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Chad Richison: $211.13 million | Company: Paycom | Industry: Software Image Credit:

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Joseph Levin: $189,503,132 | Company: IAC/InterActiveCorp (IAC) | Industry: Internet/Media (holding company) Image Credit:

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Robert Kotick: $154,613,318 | Company: Activision Blizzard (ATVI) | Industry: Interactive entertainment content and services Image Credit:

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Leonard S. Schleifer: $135,350,121 | Company: Regeneron Pharma (REGN) | Industry: Pharmaceuticals Image Credit:

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Brian Chesky: $120,099,075 | Company: Airbnb (ABNB) | Industry: Internet / Lodging Image Credit: Twitter

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Piotr Szulczewski: $78,191,786 | Company: ContextLogic (WISH) | Industry: e-Commerce Image Credit: Twitter

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Javier J. Rodriguez: $73,432,365 | Company: DaVita (DVA) | Industry: Healthcare Image Credit: Twitter

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Larry Culp: $72,728,233 | Company: General Electric (GE) | Industry: Conglomerate Image Credit: Twitter

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G. Michael Sievert: $54,914,015 | Company: T-Mobile US (TMUS) | Industry: Telecommunications Image Credit: Twitter

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John J. Donahoe II: $53,499,980 | Company: Nike (NKE) | Industry: Apparel/footwear Image Credit: Twitter

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Jay Farner: $51,727,166 | Company: Rocket (RKT) | Industry: Consumer Finance Image Credit: Twitter / Reuters / Bloomberg

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Dexter Goei: $48,021,088 | Company: Altice USA (ATUS) | Industry: Telecommunications / Mass Media Image Credit: Twitter

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Gregory B. Maffei: $46,585,594 | Company: Liberty Media (FWON.K) | Industry: Internet/Media Image Credit: Bloomberg

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Shantanu Narayen: $45,889,954 | Company: Adobe (ADBE) | Industry: Software Image Credit: Twitter

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Satya Nadella: $44,321,788 | Company: Microsoft (MSFT) | Industry: Software Image Credit: Twitter

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James Heppelmann: $43,741,746 | Company: PTC (PTC) | Industry: Engineering, digital manufacturing Image Credit: Twitter / Reuters / Bloomberg

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Reed Hastings: $43,226,024 | Company: Netflix (NFLX) | Industry: Tech / Entertainment / Mass Media Image Credit: Twitter / Reuters / Bloomberg

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