Compensation

The compensation of Legg Mason Inc.'s CEO and chief financial officer more than doubled over the year that ended March 31, according to a proxy statement filed Wednesday with regulators. CEO Joseph A. Sullivan, who took the helm of the Baltimore-based money manager in February, saw his total compensation for the fiscal year rise to $7.29 million, up from nearly $3.23 million the prior year. This includes a $425,000 salary, a $2.7 million cash bonus and $3.77 million in stock awards.

The compensation of Legg Mason Inc.'s CEO and chief financial officer more than doubled over the year that ended March 31, according to a proxy statement filed Wednesday with regulators. CEO Joseph A. Sullivan, who took the helm of the Baltimore-based money manager in February, saw his total compensation for the fiscal year rise to $7.29 million, up from nearly $3.23 million the prior year. This includes a $425,000 salary, a $2.7 million cash bonus and $3.77 million in stock awards.

A January 18 Sun article on salaries of higher education officials reported that I had refused to accept a deferred compensation payment (" State university presidents' pay in middle of the pack"). This is not correct. The Sun based this on information released this week by the Chronicle of Higher Education that shows that I received a deferred compensation payment in 2008 but not in 2009. However, this change actually stems from the University System of Maryland Board of Regents' conversion of my deferred compensation to a multi-year performance payment.

Jos. A. Bank Clothiers Inc.'s top executive, R. Neal Black, earned $2.9 million last year, a decrease from the $4 million in compensation Black earned in 2011, the Hampstead-based men's apparel retailer said. Executive compensation for CEO Black, who also serves as the company's president, included a base salary of $806,492 and $1.96 million in stock awards, Bank reported in a filing Friday with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. In 2011, Black's earnings also included $1.2 million in non-equity incentive plan compensation.

The chief executive of Baltimore money manager T. Rowe Price Group received about $4.7 million in compensation last year, a 17 percent drop from 2008. James A.C. Kennedy's $350,000 salary remained the same, but the value of his option awards and nonequity incentive plan compensation slumped. That comes on top of a decrease in 2008, a terrible year for financial companies. Kennedy's 2007 compensation was $7.9 million. Brian C. Rogers, chairman and chief investment officer, took a 29 percent cut last year, to $4.7 million.

Total compensation for Under Amour CEO Kevin A. Plank fell 14 percent last year after the company failed to significantly improve its operating efficiency, the company said in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing. Plank's compensation, including base salary and company performance incentives, totaled $1.13 million in 2011, down from $1.32 million in 2010, a proxy statement filed Friday showed. Plank, Under Armour's chairman, president and largest stockholder, made Forbes magazine's list of the world's billionaires earlier this month with a net worth of $1.1 billion.

As free agency opens Saturday morning, there is one change that will decide how teams receive compensation draft picks for free agents who sign with other teams. Teams have had a five-day window that began Monday -- the day after the end of the World Series -- to negotiate exclusively with their free agents. That window ends at the end of tonight, thus officially opening the free-agent season. In the past, free agents were rated by Elias, which determined what kind of picks a team would receive if it lost a free agent after offering him arbitration.

I take issue with Professor Larry Gibson's letter to the editor, written in response to your article "Ex-dean of UMB law is audit target" (Feb. 20). As a former student of Professor Gibson's, I have great respect for his contributions to the school of law and the city of Baltimore. However I believe he willfully attempts to steer the focus away from important questions involving Karen Rothenberg's compensation. In doing so, he provides irresponsible justifications for compensating individuals who ultimately provide a public service to our state.

Sinclair Broadcast Group's chief executive, David D. Smith, earned $4.2 million last year, a 16 percent increase that included more than $2 million in stock option awards, the Hunt Valley-based broadcaster reported. Compensation for Smith, who is also the company's president, included a $1 million base salary and $1 million in cash bonuses, the company reported Monday to the Securities and Exchange Commission. The company said 94 percent of shareholders approved the company's executive compensation package last year in Sinclair's first-ever "say on pay" vote.

Legg Mason shareholders voted to approve a $4.9 million pay package for Chairman and CEO Mark R. Fetting at the Baltimore-based investment firm's annual meeting Tuesday morning. Fetting's compensation package was $1 million less than the package approved at last year's meeting. Compensation for four other executives was approved in amounts ranging from $1.8 million to $3.5 million. The shareholder's approval of the compensation packages was advisory and nonbinding. Shareholder guidance group Glass, Lewis & Co. had recommended that stockholders support the compensation packages, which it said are similar to Legg Mason's peers.

Four presidents at public research universities made a collective $9.2 million in fiscal year 2012, with the top earner of the group making much of his money because he was fired, according to a report released Sunday by the Chronicle of Higher Education. Graham B. Spanier, who was terminated from Pennsylvania State University in late 2011 for his handling of a child-molestation scandal, was paid $2.9 million - $1.2 million of it in severance. This was the first fiscal year that four presidents topped the million mark in compensation.

Compensation for First Mariner Bancorp's top executive reached $495,362 last year, about double from a year ago thanks to a bonus, according to a company filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Mark A. Keidel, president, chief operating officer and interim CEO of the Baltimore-based bank holding company, earned a base salary of $235,000, a bonus of $251,340 and other compensation of $9,022 in 2012, according to regulatory filings. His total compensation the year before was $244,436.

The top executives of T. Rowe Price Group Inc. saw their compensation rise last year, the Baltimore-based investment firm reported. CEO James A.C. Kennedy earned $8.4 million in total compensation last year, a 7 percent increase over 2011 and Brian C. Rogers, Price's chairman and chief investment officer, earned $8.3 million in total compensation, an 8 percent increase from 2011, the company reported in a recent filing with the U.S. Securities and...

Under Armour CEO and president Kevin Plank earned $1.53 million in total compensation last year, a 35 percent jump over 2011, the Baltimore-based sports apparel company reported Tuesday. Plank, the company's founder and chairman of the board, had a base salary of $26,000 - unchanged from 2011, according to a proxy statement filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. But Plank earned $1.5 million in non-equity incentive plan compensation, up from $1.1 million in incentive plan earnings in 2011, the company said.

While the Ravens front office contemplates Joe Flacco's agent's insistence that his client should be the highest-paid quarterback in the NFL, Flacco's teammates have a pretty good idea of where Flacco stands with the rest of his peers. “He deserves to get paid,” outside linebacker Terrell Suggs said as a guest on The NFL Network's “NFL Total Access” program Friday night. “Where he scales at, that's between our front office and his agent. But he definitely deserves it. The man has a championship ring and you reward your champion by paying him.” Wide receiver and return specialist Jacoby Jones appeared on the same program and voiced a similar opinion.

Employees at the former ESPN Zone restaurant in Baltimore who were laid off without notice when the Inner Harbor attraction closed in 2010 were not compensated correctly under federal law and are due additional payments, a federal judge ruled Thursday. About 140 full- and part-time employees worked at the restaurant when it was closed June 15, 2010. In October 2010, a class-action lawsuit was brought against Zone Enterprises of Maryland, a subsidiary of the Walt Disney Co., alleging that the company failed to give the employees 60 days' notice, as is generally required of companies with more than 40 employees under the federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification, or WARN, Act. The Baltimore restaurant was one of five ESPN Zone locations nationwide closed at the time.

Robert Embry's article that addressed barriers to attracting quality teachers ("Maryland must remove barriers to attracting quality teachers," Feb. 1) raises several fundamental issues. First, as one who supervised teachers for 22 of my 32 years in public school education, I would posit that individuals entering the profession should be referred to as "prospective" teachers. Second, given the compensation disparity between the public and private sectors, the best and brightest are not attracted to teaching.

The former dean of the University of Maryland School of Law has offered to repay $60,000 in compensation questioned by a state audit and is "deeply sorry over any negative impact" the audit's findings have caused, according to a letter released Monday by her attorney. The letter says that former dean Karen Rothenberg offered to return the $60,000 to David Ramsay, outgoing president of the University of Maryland, Baltimore, upon learning on Feb. 16 that the audit had raised concerns about payments she received for summer research between fiscal years 2007 and 2009.

Maryland's highest paid lobbyist of 2012 earned $1.3 million during a busy legislative year that included two special sessions and millions spent by gambling interests. Timothy Perry, who last year ranked No. 2, tops the 2012 annual lobbyist compensation rankings recently released by the State Ethics Commission. Last year's top earner, Gerry Evans, dropped to the fifth spot on the list. While the order may have been shuffled, the same 10 lobbyists populated top-10 list. Lawmakers this year held two special sessions, one in May to pass a state budget and another in August to put gambling expansion on the state ballot.

The pharmacy at the center of a fungal meningitis outbreak that has hit 19 states said Friday it has declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy in Massachusetts. The New England Compounding Center also said it plans to establish a fund to compensate those affected by the outbreak. The outbreak has sickened 620 people and killed 39. In Maryland, 25 people have gotten ill and two have died. The outbreak is linked to three lots of a steroid injection used to treat back pain that clinics and medical facilities bought from New England Compounding Center.