Lockheed Martin Corp.'s CEO Robert J. Stevens has had a lucrative career at the nation's largest defense contractor, and his pay has been outlined to shareholders for years.
But investors didn't know how lucrative his retirement could be. The Bethesda-based company has disclosed for the first time that in addition to $5.2 million in salary and bonus, plus stock awards and perks last year, Stevens also accrued more than $2 million in three pension plans, two 401(k) plans and a tax-advantaged plan mostly used by the corporate elite.
Companies such as Lockheed Martin are revealing more about the pay and perks conferred on the nation's chief executive officers than ever before. This year, public companies must follow new regulations aimed at shedding a brighter light on the executive pay that some shareholders and activists say has grown unchecked for years. Activists also point out that rank-and-file workers haven't seen proportionate benefits.
"It's fairly amazing, some of the amounts we're seeing, particularly in pensions," said Paul Hodgson, an analyst at the Corporate Library, a governance watchdog group. "If you make millions of dollars a year, you should have been able to save enough money or amass enough stock to get through retirement."
Stevens, whose pay package totaled $18.6 million, ranked among the highest-paid CEOs in Maryland last year, according to a survey by Salary.com of companies with headquarters here. Others included Constellation Energy Group Inc.'s Mayo A. Shattuck III, whose compensation package was worth $20 million, and Legg Mason Inc.'s Raymond A. "Chip" Mason, whose package was valued at $13.7 million.
Overall, 52 Maryland CEOs made more than $1 million last year, according to the salary survey commissioned by The Sun. The survey was based on data obtained from proxy statements and other public filings.
Among the figures revealed in this year's pay reports:
Retirement benefits, sometimes exceeding annual salaries, that were not fully reported or were difficult to quantify in the past.
Multimillion-dollar exit packages, which are often paid even when an executive is fired for poor performance. Such "golden good-byes" had been disclosed previously in employment contracts. But the value of the potential payouts was typically difficult to calculate.
