Regulators began requiring companies to report changes in pension values as part of total pay three years ago, said Steven Hall, head of executive-pay consulting firm Steven Hall & Partners in New York.
While the figures are part of total compensation, "you really can't compare them between different people that well," because of difference in age, interest-rate assumptions and other variables, he said. Nevertheless, in Shattuck's case, Hall added, "it's a big number no matter what."
The compensation package for Shattuck was awarded for a year in which the company was pushed to the brink of bankruptcy by a crippling shortage of credit that threatened to swamp the company's tenuous commodities trading business. Constellation was rescued by a $1 billion infusion from billionaire Warren E. Buffett's MidAmerican Energy Holdings Co., which swept in with an offer to buy the company for $4.7 billion.
Constellation ultimately withdrew from the MidAmerican takeover deal, choosing to remain an independent company and instead sell half its nuclear power business to French utility EDF for $4.5 billion. Canceling the deal with MidAmerican cost Constellation $593 million in termination fees and 10 percent of the company's stock.
The MidAmerican deal negotiated by Shattuck and other company officials also called for paying some Constellation executives $32 million in performance and retention payouts - payments that carried over into the deal with EDF. But those bonuses were terminated earlier this year amid sharp public criticism.
Shattuck's $14 million compensation package for 2007 made him the highest-paid executive in the Baltimore area at the time, according to an analysis by The Baltimore Sun. It is unclear where he would rank today because several of the area's corporations have not reported executive pay for 2008. Black & Decker reported compensation for Chief Executive Officer Nolan D. Archibald of $13.6 million.
Baltimore Sun columnist Jay Hancock contributed to this article.
