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CEO Marchionne received no salary or stock awards from Chrysler in 2011


March 7, 2012

Chrysler Chairman and CEO Sergio Marchionne received no salary or stock awards from Chrysler in 2011, the company said in is annual report, filed late Tuesday.

Marchionne, who also is CEO of Fiat, does, however, receive compensation and stock from the Italian automaker.

In 2010, Marchionne received about $4.5 million in fees from Fiat, according to the company’s 2010 annual report. Marchionne received $600,000 in stock awards from Chrysler in 2010, but did not receive a salary or any bonuses.

Fiat, which owns 58.5% of Chrysler, also filed its 2011 annual report on Tuesday. However, Fiat did not disclose Marchionne’s executive compensation information in its most recent annual report.

The company plans to file a separate document disclosing that information for Marchionne and other top officers next week.

Marchionne’s compensation stands in stark contrast to Ford CEO Alan Mulally, who received $26.5 million in total compensation from Ford for 2010. Ford also disclosed Tuesday that Mulally acquired 2.85 million shares of Ford stock by exercising stock options granted in 2009 that now have a value of $34.5 million.

Ford, which did not need federal emergency loans, is not subject to review by U.S. Treasury for its compensation practices.

In 2010, General Motors paid CEO Dan Akerson a $1.7-million salary, stock-based compensation of $5.3 million and $2 million in restricted stock, according to a regulatory filing.

If Chrysler had paid Marchionne in 2011, his salary and compensation would have been subject to review by a special master appointed by U.S. Treasury.

Chrysler was subject to the review because of the terms of an agreement between the automaker and the government in 2009 as part of the company’s exit from Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

Last year, U.S. Treasury did approve the compensation for Chrysler’s five other senior executive officers and the next 20 most highly compensated employees.

The following were Chrysler’s top paid executives in 2011:

• Richard Palmer, senior vice president and CFO: $1.18 million in salary, stock and stock options

• Holly Leese, vice president, general counsel and secretary: $1.15 million in salary, stock and stock options.

• Nancy Rae, senior vice president, human resources: $996,454 in salary, stock and stock options

• Michael Manley, senior vice president of international operations and head of Jeep, $968,634 in salary, stock and stock options.

After Chrysler repaid all of its loans to the U.S. and Canadian governments last May the company was no longer bound by its agreement to Treasury.

However, Marchionne made it clear at the time that the company had no plans to make major changes.

“We’re going to remain competitive, but I think the industry itself has learned how to be much more cautious,” about executive compensation, Marchionne said last summer during the automaker’s second quarter conference call. “We intend to follow that trend and I don’t think we should be breaking with what I consider to be a very …institutionalized trend today in the marketplace.”

SOURCE