Factbox-Battles over CEO pay across the globe

Factbox-Battles over CEO pay across the globe

(Reuters) -A majority of Salesforce shareholders voted against a compensation plan for CEO Marc Benioff and other top executives, according to a security filing on Monday.

Benioff received $39.6 million in total compensation for fiscal year 2024, up from $29.9 million in the prior year.

Below are other CEO pay packages that have faced a tough fight:

Year Company Description

2024 Tesla A Delaware judge in January voided

Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s $56 billion pay

package, calling it as

“unfathomable.” Shareholders, in

June, approved the package, despite

opposition from some large

institutional investors and proxy

firms.

2024 AstraZeneca Over a third of AstraZeneca’s

investors opposed its 2024 pay

policy, which will boost CEO Pascal

Soriot’s remuneration to as much as

18.9 million pounds. It won the

backing, however, of the required

majority of votes.

2024 3M In May, 3M shareholders voted down

the annual compensation packages of

certain executives, including that of

former CEO Mike Roman.

2024 BlackRock BlackRock’s executive pay, including

that of CEO Larry Fink, won narrow

support from shareholders, with about

42% of votes cast opposing it.

2024 Boohoo UK-based Boohoo Group’s bosses waived

their annual bonuses in May and

scrapped plans to raise executive

awards after backlash from

shareholders.

2023 BP Former CEO Bernard Looney had more

than $40 million cut in his

compensation after the British oil

giant concluded he misled the board

over personal relationships with

colleagues.

2023 Telecom Shareholders rejected Telecom

Italia Italia’s pay policy after top

investor Vivendi criticized criteria

to award bonus payments to CEO Pietro

Labriola.

2022 Intel Intel shareholders rejected

compensation packages for top

executives, including a payout of as

much as $178.6 million to CEO Pat

Gelsinger.

2021 Rio Tinto Rio Tinto shareholders rejected the

miner’s executive pay packages, in a

backlash over its destruction of

ancient rock shelters in Western

Australia the previous year.

2021 McDonald’s Former CEO Steve Easterbrook agreed

to return compensation worth $105

million in equity awards and cash to

settle a lawsuit over alleged lies

about affairs.

2021 GE GE shareholders rejected executives’

compensation packages, including a

payout of as much as $230 million to

CEO Larry Culp.

2021 Morrisons Investors in the British supermarket

group overwhelmingly rejected its pay

report in 2021.

2021 Halliburton More than half of Halliburton’s

shareholders voted against its

proposed executive compensation plan.

2021 UniCredit The Italian bank’s boss, Andrea

Orcel, narrowly avoided a shareholder

revolt against his pay package,

securing only 54% of votes at a

general meeting after top investor

BlackRock voted against it.

2019 CBS CBS Corp fired Leslie Moonves for

cause and denied a $120 million

severance package after the former

chief executive was accused of sexual

harassment and assault that allegedly

took place before and after he joined

the company.

2017 Uber Travis Kalanick, Uber’s co-founder

and CEO, was forced to resign after a

series of scandals plagued the

company, including allegations of

sexual harassment and a toxic

workplace culture. Shareholders later

sued the board, alleging it failed to

properly oversee Kalanick and allowed

the scandals to occur.

2017 Equifax After a massive data breach exposed

millions of customers’ personal

information, Equifax’s CEO received

significant criticism for his

handling of the crisis and a hefty

bonus. Shareholders filed suit

alleging the board failed to properly

oversee the CEO.

2017 BP BP cut CEO Bob Dudley’s 2016 pay

package by 40% after a wave of

shareholder revolts.

2016 Viacom A shareholder lawsuit claimed that

Viacom and CBS Corp’s executive

chairman, Sumner Redstone, was

improperly paid millions though “he

was physically and mentally

incapacitated.”

2011 Occidental Occidental Petroleum CEO Ray

Petroleum Irani was criticized for excessive

pay after his compensation grew 40%

in 2009 to $31.4 million.

Shareholders pushed for board seats.

2002 Worldcom After an accounting scandal that led

to financial fraud, shareholders sued

the company over excessive

compensation awarded to executives,

including the CEO.

(Reporting by Priyanka.G, Anchal Rana, Yadarisa Shabong and Jaspreet Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Aditya Soni, Devika Syamnath, ,Matthew Lewis, Miral Fahmy and Sriraj Kalluvila)