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Thursday, 05 May 2011 04:50

Sotheby’s bosses get 125% pay rise

Six-million dollar man: Sotheby’s chief executive William Ruprecht Six-million dollar man: Sotheby’s chief executive William Ruprecht

Sotheby’s is seeking approval from its shareholders for a $15.3m pay package for five of its executive officers for 2010. Details are given in the firm’s proxy statement, issued in advance of its Annual General Meeting (AGM) on 5 May.

The total compensation, up 125% from $6.8m in 2009, includes base salaries, plus other annual remunerations such as cash incentive bonuses and awards of Sotheby’s shares. These additional perks take the total level of pay to at least five times these executives’ base salary, and nearly nine times for the chief executive William Ruprecht.

The breakdown of total remuneration for 2010 is: $6m for Ruprecht, up from $2.4m in 2009; $2.5m for William Sheridan, chief financial officer (2009: $1.1m); $3m for Bruno Vinciguerra, chief operating officer (2009: $1.5m); $2.1m for Kevin Ching, chief executive of Asia (2009: $1.1m); and $1.7m for Robin Woodhead, executive vice president and chairman of Sotheby’s International (2009: $775,000).

Also included in the AGM proxy are details of “other compensation”. These include “automobile-related expenses, including driver’s compensation” for Ruprecht of $59,952; “club dues” of $29,329 for Sheridan and “parking fees” of $5,874 for Woodhead.

Sotheby’s management “pays itself relatively well compared with companies with similar revenue”, said Wall Street analyst Aaron Mo at JMP Securities (Sotheby’s 2010 revenue was $774.3m). Other US chief executives at the $6m total compensation level for 2010 include David Mackay, chief executive of Kellogg (2010 revenue: $12.4bn); Mark Pigott, chief executive of truck manufacturer Paccar (2010 revenue: $10.3bn) and Michael McCallister, who heads up US health insurance group Humana (2010 revenue: $33.9bn). The average increase on 2009 pay for top executives at 200 major US companies was 12%, according to a study conducted by US compensation consulting firm Equilar. All the named Sotheby’s executives saw an increase of over 90%.

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