Fiat Chrysler Paid CEO Marchionne $38 Million in 2014
Fiat Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne earned more than $38.06 million in 2014 when all of his bonuses and compensation are included, according to an annual report published by Fiat Chrysler Automobiles Thursday, reported Detroit Free Press.
An earlier version of this story said Marchionne's total compensation for 2014 was about $7.2 million using Thursday's currency exchange rates.
The amount of Marchionne's total compensation includes a one-time "extraordinary incentive" in the form of a $30.04 million, onetime cash bonus using currency exchange rates as of Dec. 31 that was not included in the earlier story. In addition, Marchionne was awarded a $14.6-million bonus he will get when he retires or leaves the company and 1.6 million restricted Fiat Chrysler shares as long as shareholders approve the offer at an April 16 annual meeting.
The automaker's board of directors granted Marchionne the additional bonuses because he "was instrumental in major strategic and financial accomplishments for the group," in 2014.
"Most notably," the board said, "through the CEO's vision and guidance, FCA was formed, creating enormous value for the company, its shareholders, employees and stakeholders."
Excluding the "extraordinary bonus," Marchionne's total compensation was $8.03 million (6.6 million euro), according to exchange rates on Dec. 31.
His total compensation included an annual salary of about $3.04 million (2.5 million euros), a $4.86-million annual bonus (4 million euros) and other compensation valued at about $139,000 (111,000 euros), according the exchange rate as of Dec. 31, 2014.
Marchionne is no longer eligible for a separate salary for running FCA US, the company previously known as Chrysler.
His total compensation for 2014 is vastly more than the $5 million Marchionne earned for his work as CEO of Fiat in 2013.
Last year, Marchionne led Fiat and Chrysler through a complete corporate transformation as he finally brought the two automakers together.
Fiat acquired a portion of Chrysler in 2009 and became the 100% owner of the Auburn Hills automaker in 2014. Marchionne restructured the company into a single automaker registered in the Netherlands in October -- the same month the automaker began trading on the New York Stock Exchange.
The automaker's stock price has soared more than 70% to $15.24 per share since Oct. 13 when the stock closed at $8.92 during its first day of trading.
John Elkann, who is chairman of Fiat Chrysler and is the great-great-grandson of the founder of Fiat, earned a total of $2.04 million (1.68 million euros) last year.
The automaker filed its annual report with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday but did not disclose the salaries of its top officers in that report.
The SEC requires publicly traded companies based in the U.S. to disclose the salaries of its top five highest paid executives.
The compensation for Marchionne and Elkann far exceeded the compensation paid to any other board members. Fiat Chrysler Automobiles separately disclosed the compensation of its board of directors in a more complete annual report filed on the company's corporate web site.
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