Goldman's Blankfein Gets Street's Biggest Paycheck By RANDALL SMITH
Goldman Sachs Group Inc. paid its chairman and chief executive, Lloyd Blankfein, about $54 million for 2006, a record for Wall Street bosses who are harvesting their share of bull-market bounty.
Mr. Blankfein, who became CEO midway through the year when Henry Paulson became Treasury secretary, saw his pay soar 42% from $38 million for 2005, when he was president and chief operating officer.
John Mack of Morgan Stanley, the only other big-firm Wall Street CEO to report his pay, last week disclosed receiving about $41 million for 2006, his first full year at the helm. He received $13 million for five months' work in 2005, on top of a $26 million signing bonus for rejoining in June 2005.
Mr. Blankfein's pay package reflects the firm's performance atop the Wall Street heap over the past year, when its profits rose 70% to $9.54 billion and its stock price surged 59%, increasing its stock- market value by $31 billion.
But it also reflects the inflation in Wall Street CEO pay packages, which last year generally came in at between $30 million and $40 million, with the stock market in the fourth year of a bull run and a boom in private-equity buyouts and hedge-fund trading.
A former tax lawyer and gold salesman who rose to become head of the firm's fixed-income, currency and commodities division in 1998, the 52-year-old Mr. Blankfein epitomizes Goldman's risk-taking culture.
His latest pay package includes a cash bonus of $27.3 million, restricted shares valued at $15.7 million and options valued at $10.5 million, according to a filing yesterday by Goldman, which disclosed the stock awards and included the cash bonus. He also earned a salary of $600,000.
Mr. Blankfein becomes entitled to 40% of the 77,776 shares of restricted stock immediately and the remaining 60% in November 2009.
Goldman's next two top executives, co-presidents and co-chief operating officers Gary Cohn and Jon Winkelried, received identical packages of $15.4 million in restricted stock and options worth $10.3 million. While Goldman didn't disclose the size of their cash bonuses, neither executive's compensation will top Mr. Blankfein's, according to someone familiar with the firm.