Top ten paid US executives for 2016

Evercore, founded in 1995, hired 32-year-old veteran from top ranking Wall Street firm

The Bloomberg Pay Index ranked the top ten highest paid executives in the US - leaders from the technology sector dominated top spots amongst America's highest paid executives while an employee of Goldman Sachs stood out.

Sixty-year-old John S Weinberg's surname was synonymous with the bank for many years, perhaps decades, till he left as co-vice chairman in 2015 to join Evercore Partners Inc a year later. On December 31, he reaped sign-on awards worth $124 million, placing him third on Bloomberg Pay Index [BPI], which ranks the highest paid executives across the US.

The BPI follows the top 200 highest paid executives recorded in filings of companies which submit their compensation details to US regulators. The Index includes salaries, bonuses, perks, options and changes in pension value. Equity values are valued at each company's annual fiscal end.



Weinberg is only surpassed by Marc Lore, co-founder of Jet.com Inc. whose in awarded compensation of $236.9 million from the previous year consisted of money from Walmart Store which bought his company. Apple's CEO, Tim Cook, with an in-award compensation of $150 million, Google's CEO Sundar Pichai 44 and Tesla's Elon Musk, 45 are all those who round up in the top five highest paid executives.

However, Weinberg, a corporate adviser who's father and his father before that had led Goldman Sachs, stands out in the quintet. It was a rare instance for Evercore, founded 1995, to hire a 32-year-old veteran from a top ranking Wall Street firm.

Steven Hall, managing director at a compensation consulting firm called Steven Hall & Partners said, “The concept of nine-figure compensation numbers can be startling, But these are executives whose proven talents make them heavily sought after by other firms.”

A sum of $22.9 million was awarded to Weinberg in 2013, the last year his pay was disclosed by Goldman Sachs. In its annual proxy filing Evercore said that Weinberg has a “proven track record as a leader of investment-banking businesses.”

His pay package for the previous year included $88.9 million in restricted stock and partnership units of which a third is tied to performance leaving him with the opportunity to collect further $35 million paid in cash if targets are met.

This puts Weinberg ahead of others such as current CEO of Goldman Sachs Lloyd Blankfein and founders of KKR & CO, Henry Kravis and George Roberts. As a result of Weinberg being ahead, the other three are less likely to be in the top of the index for the next year.



Executives such as 74-year-old, Mario Gabelli, who ranked tenth on the index with $76 million, show up perennially. The payouts are in cash which puts them on an opposite spectrum from Pichai who isn't paid in cash but in stock that is granted every other year from Google's parent company Alphabet Inc.

Ranking sixth on the BPI is Virginia M.Rometty, CEO of International Business Machines Corp, followed by Mitch Garber of Caesars Acquisition Co ranking seventh, Philippe P Duman former CEO of Viacom Inc ranked eighth and Leslie Moonves of CBS Corp ranking ninth.

Meanwhile, Lore who is at the top of the BPI makes a special case since most of his compensation is tied to the deal with Walmart and composes of restricted shares which will be vested fully by September 2021. Excluding the shares from the acquisition, Lore receives $1.43 million in the form of salary, perks and bonuses for the fiscal year.

However, it comes as a surprise to see 45-year-old Lore at the top of the list, who had previously worked at Amazon.com before starting Jet.com.

In an article published my him on Linkedin he wrote “Over my six years in finance, I learned to approach my career as an individual sport, where I was judged by the size of my bonus. Ultimately, I have realized that success is not a measure of your salary, title or degree, but the impact you have on others and the collective happiness of the people you touch.”

This article originally appeared on Bloomberg