[I'd be happy just to see a few CEOs explode. Ah, the joy of no-risk, all-reward living:]
January 9, 2005 Mayday? Payday! Hit the Silk! By Timothy L. O'Brien
... [Consider] the retirement piñata that the Bank of America plans to bestow on Charles K. Gifford when he steps aside as its chairman at the end of this month. An amiable, dedicated manager with a decidedly mixed track record as chief executive, Mr. Gifford, 62, has managed to survive strategic misfires, one bungled merger and another merger that kept him in the top ranks of the bank but no longer in control.
For his ministrations, Mr. Gifford is promised a $16.36 million cash payment, up to an additional $8.67 million in "incentive payments" for work done over the last 13 months and $3.1 million a year for life. If he dies before his wife, she will receive $2.3 million a year, also for life.
That's not all. The bank guarantees him $50,000 a year in consulting fees, 120 hours of free flight time a year on the company's jet, and an office and a secretary, according to federal securities filings. All of this is on top of $38.4 million in company stock that he has accrued over his 38-year career.
Wait. There is more: Mr. Gifford, a Bostonian, has also been offered the right to buy 60 Red Sox tickets from the bank annually for the rest of his life. Now exhale. ...
<http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/09/business/yourmoney/09gold.html>
January 9, 2005 Keep Writing Those Checks By Mark A. Stein
... FIRST THINGS FIRST: The Mirant Corporation has said it will give its chief executive, S. Marce Fuller, a lovely parting gift of $3.4 million when she resigns. What it has not said is when she will go. Some shareholders may think it can't be soon enough.
Ms. Fuller has run Mirant since the Southern Company spun it off in 1999, at $22 a share. It leaped into the brave new world of energy trading - and flopped. Its stock, which peaked at $45.25, closed on Friday at 39 cents. Mirant filed to reorganize under Chapter 11 of the federal bankruptcy code in July 2003, with $11 billion in debts. It has yet to come out. Meanwhile, it has acknowledged overstating profits for years, and last month it paid $12.5 million to settle federal charges that it had tried to manipulate the energy market. So what led Mirant to give Ms. Fuller, 44, a golden handshake? A spokesman said it was for Ms. Fuller's service to the company.
<http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/09/business/yourmoney/09suits.html>
Carl