Originally Posted by
Opus
Timbo, if I may correct you. Delta didn't pay United Health Care 15 million for Anderson. It put 15 million in contract incentives if Delta met certain financial goals. Even with that he left a lot, and I mean a lot, of cash on the table by coming to Delta.
Executive Suite: Delta chief takes unlikely flight path - USATODAY.com
"Anderson decided to return to the airline industry, despite a pay cut to about $1.5 million annually in salary and bonus. Anderson potentially could earn as much as $15 million in three years from Delta if a special incentive package created to partially offset the pay cut he took pays out fully. He could have earned several times that had he stayed at UnitedHealth.
Anderson says the attraction of returning to the industry is the "intellectual challenge of trying to make an important, long-lasting change in how … airlines are managed." Specifically, he says, Delta is positioned to show that airlines need not be vulnerable to the cyclical swings that have marked the industry's history."
Don't feel to bad for RA. Here is a article where he was voted the number 10 spot in the 10 greediest men in America. The only non banker to make the list in 2009.
\
America’s airlines have been flying, for the most part, under the media radar ever since the nation’s banks went into meltdown mode, and that suits Delta CEO Richard Anderson just fine.
Delta, now the world’s biggest airline, has been richly rewarding Anderson ever since he became the airline’s top exec in September 2007. If folks were paying attention, they might wonder why. Delta, after all, lost $8.9 billion in 2008. In 2009, Delta and other U.S. carriers, says the International Air Transport Association, will likely lose a combined $1 billion.
Passengers are certainly feeling this red ink. Delta and other carriers have been trimming seating capacity, a move,
notes the
Orlando Sentinel, designed to “enable them to raise ticket prices more often.” Delta is also squeezing passengers with airport bag fees. In August, the airline’s bag charges
bounded to $20 for the first bag and $30 for the second.
Anderson and his family, meanwhile, don’t just fly free on Delta. The airline also pays the taxes due on Anderson’s free tickets -- and
lots more, too.
For agreeing to become Delta’s chief, 28 months ago, Anderson picked up $8.5 million in stock awards. Seven months later, another $3.4 million. Six months after that, to celebrate the Delta-Northwest merger, more options to buy Delta stock, worth $7.3 million, and more actual shares, worth $6.1 million.
With all those rewards, Anderson must be devoting every waking hour to making Delta soar, right? Well, almost every waking hour. Anderson has been spending some of his precious hours serving on the corporate board of Medtronic, a medical tech firm. In 2009, from the good people at Medtronic,
he’ll pocket $188,000 for his directorship services.
9: George David/Marie Douglas-David
This power couple hit the headlines last March