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New Duke CEO to be paid only in stock Anderson to get package of shares, options currently worth about $2 million a year STAN CHOE Staff Writer
Duke Energy Corp. will pay its new chairman and chief executive, Paul Anderson, only in stock and stock options, it said Wednesday.
The package is worth about $2 million annually, if Duke's stock price and dividend stay level; neither is a guarantee. With the deal, Charlotte-based Duke becomes one of about a dozen of Fortune 500 companies, mostly tech-oriented, to pay their chief executives with no cash or little of it.
Duke tapped Anderson, a former No. 2 Duke executive who left to turn around Australian mining giant BHP Billiton Ltd., to revive the struggling energy giant. He started at the beginning of this month. Shareholders have grown more aghast as CEOs pull multimillion-dollar salaries, even when stock prices drop or dividends are cut. Corporate governance groups urge CEOs to take more of their pay in stock and stock options, to closer align their interests with shareholders'. But some governance groups worry that may carry another danger: With so much of their pay entwined in the stock price, CEOs may be tempted to gun for short-term gains at the expense of long-term health, unless boards set proper benchmarks. New Duke CEO to be paid only in stock Anderson to get package of shares, options currently worth about $2 million a year STAN CHOE Staff Writer
Duke Energy Corp. will pay its new chairman and chief executive, Paul Anderson, only in stock and stock options, it said Wednesday.
The package is worth about $2 million annually, if Duke's stock price and dividend stay level; neither is a guarantee. With the deal, Charlotte-based Duke becomes one of about a dozen of Fortune 500 companies, mostly tech-oriented, to pay their chief executives with no cash or little of it.
Duke tapped Anderson, a former No. 2 Duke executive who left to turn around Australian mining giant BHP Billiton Ltd., to revive the struggling energy giant. He started at the beginning of this month.
Shareholders have grown more aghast as CEOs pull multimillion-dollar salaries, even when stock prices drop or dividends are cut. Corporate governance groups urge CEOs to take more of their pay in stock and stock options, to closer align their interests with shareholders'.
But some governance groups worry that may carry another danger: With so much of their pay entwined in the stock price, CEOs may be tempted to gun for short-term gains at the expense of long-term health, unless boards set proper benchmarks
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