The numbers are crunched and the results are in. The 1995 National Chief Executive Officer awards have been announced. Each of the CEOs from corporations nation-wide was in the running for the ten awards of various levels of distinction.

CEO Lawrence Coss of Green Tree Financial, a mobile home finance company, ran away with the "Golden greed" award. Coss saw fit to demand $65.6 million from a company that netted only $254 million. Coss’s income amounted to over 25% of the company’s net. (Way to go Larry!)

The "Fox in the hen house" award was a unanimous decision this year. Gil Amelio structured his compensation so that since Apple Computer has become the 98 lb. weakling of the computer industry, if Apple changes hands in the next year he will collect $10-13 million. (How do you like dem’ Apples?)

Microsoft’s CEO Bill Gates again covets the "Down your throat" award for his dubious success at shoving an unwanted product down the throats of computer users world wide. (Open wide, it’s Windows 95.)

Chairman Warren Buffet of Berkshire Hathaway (replacing Bill Gates as the richest man in the world) gets the "Say again?" award. Buffet told investors, "Don’t buy my stock, it’s too over-priced." Also going to Buffett, was the annual "Pay disparity" award. The pay disparity award goes to a CEO that recognizes that he or she already has his or her fair share of a finite resource. Buffett collected less compensation than his CEO peers -- His salary in 1981 was $100,000, the same as it was in 1995. Buffett hasn’t had a raise in 15 years. (If you’re worth 16.6 billion, do you need one?)

The annual "There must be some mistake" Award was a three-way tie this year between GM’s Jack Smith, Ford’s Alex Trotman and Chrysler’s Robert Eaton. Each of these CEOs took a pay cut in 1995 in spite of the fact all three auto makers posted multi-billion dollar net incomes. (We should see the prices of new vehicles fall any day now...)

Disney’s Michael Eisner gets the "Up your ROI" award for giving his investors the least return on investment for his $228 million in 3 years. Flat stock performance has stagnated Disney investors’ ROI. (But that’s no Mickey Mouse compensation.)

The "Reach out and touch someone" award, also known as the "Gotcha", goes to Robert Allen of AT&T. Allen collects a mere $1.52 million in salary, but stands to make another $9.7 million in the next four years from the stock options he received following the company’s restructuring. This restructuring, incidentally, will result in the loss of at least 18,000 jobs at AT&T. Allen is our winner at $876.67 per employee purged. (The remaining 110,000 employees are rumored to be taking up a collection...) An honorable mention went to BellSouth’s Chief John Clendenin who earned 3.95 million after having laid off 16,000 since 1990. A good try at only 246.88/pep. (Happy retirement JC...)

Bill Grigg of Duke Power earned the "Newcomer" award by posting a remarkable 30% increase in his compensation in just his first year as a CEO. (Welcome aboard boss?)

And finally, The "Oops" award goes to Floyd Hall. K-mart allowed $1.7 million in salary, stock awards of $15 million, and stock options of another $9.1 million if K-Mart’s stock hits 12 3/4 by June 1998. The stock promptly fell to 9 bucks. (There is a God.)

Rob Wedding © 1996