Executive Compensation

[Carl Remick]

> Citigroup sent a letter to shareholder that was reported in 
> the NY Times
> that the newly merged company paid its co-chairmen, Sanford Weill and
> John Reed, each over $26 million last year while operating 
> earnings fell
> 27%, and has announced thousands of job cuts and layoffs of 
> lower level
> employees.

I liked this comment in today's NY Times:

"Analysts were surprised at how lushly the executives were compensated
given the lack of success Citigroup had managing the global financial
turmoil that battered many companies last year. 

"'The two of them [Weill and Reed] appear to be sharing the compensation
of about five CEOs because I think you could hire very good executives
to run these companies for about $10 million,' said Graef Crystal, a
compensation expert and publisher of The Crystal Report, a newsletter.
'You clearly don't want to extend this policy too far down in the
organization or they'd be declaring Chapter 11.'...

"'John Reed was one of my minor heroes because he never used to take
huge salaries,' Crystal said. 'The minute Sandy Weill turned up, John
Reed started turning G-R-E-E-D positive. So much for synergy.'"

Carl Remick