A year has passed, so it’s once again time to do the content that comes out once a year.
With AGM season rolling on, FT Alphaville raided some DEF14As and caught up with some of the companies and business leaders who were award winners at The Proxies in 2024. With no further ado…
The Nepobaby Home Economics Award
2024 Winner: Peter Huntsman Jr., Huntsman
When we last checked in, Huntsman helmsman Peter Huntsman’s huntsson Peter Huntsman Jr. was getting some pretty generous child education expenses on the chemical company dime. Germany-based Peter Jr. racked up $208,232 in such emoluments in 2023, part of a foreign assignment package worth near half an million dollars.
How did things shift in 2024? Well, Peter Jr. managed to shave a few grand off the education expenses, but appears to be doing pretty well on gross tax mark-ups:
As a citizen of the U.S. with residence in Germany, we incurred foreign assignment costs on Peter Huntsman Jr.’s behalf during 2024, including $33,444 in international relocation expenses, allowances and adjustments, $98,701 in housing costs and $204,997 in child education expenses. In addition, we incurred $246,811 in tax gross-ups associated with Mr. Huntsman Jr.’s foreign assignment. We also paid $8,497 as an air travel allowance on Mr. Huntsman Jr.’s behalf pursuant to our Business Expense and Travel Policy.
All in all, it made for just under $600k of “other compensation”. And for any shareholders worrying this might be cutting into their dividend yield, relief isn’t coming anytime soon:
Peter Huntsman, Jr. and Mr. Calder continue to be our current employees. We expect to pay compensation and other benefits in 2025 similar to those paid in 2024.
The Can’t Take It With You Award
2024 Winner: The executive team, Service Corporation International
We don’t know if Service Corporation International has a motto, but it could be: “When they go low [into the ground], we go high [flying around in a jet]”.
The “deathcare” giant’s executive continued to take the sky with aplomb in 2024 — albeit slightly less than the year before. Thomas L. Ryan, its chair and chief executive, notched up $241,785 in expenses for personal use of aircraft.
The It’s About Ethics In Hospitality Named Executive Officer Trips Award
2024 Winner: Marriott International
Admittedly, not one that was likely to change, but Marriott still lets its named executive officers get freebies at its hotels to “experience and personally evaluate” the offering.
And, as readers pointed out last year, this is a very cheap perquisite from a company perspective — and one that probably does help them do their jobs better.
Will that prevent us making a cheap joke about back-to-back massages? No it will not.
The Relocation, Relocation, Relocation Award
2024 Winner: NeoGenomics
We caught up fully with goings on at NeoGenomics at the end of January. The quick version is that classic tale: drugs company pays man $2.2mn to move to Florida for job, man does job for just longer than minimum required to not face a clawback on that $2.2mn, man retires after about 2.5 years of “exceptional leadership”. Certainly exceptional in some areas…
The OK Wait That’s An Amazing Perk Award
2024 Winner: Polaris
Compensation’s greatest sentence is still standing:
The Exec On A Roll Flying Award
2024 Winner: Ellen R. Gordon, Tootsie Roll Industries
People keep on learning, tootsies keep on rolling, and Ellen R. Gordon keeps on flying.
The Tootsie Roll executive had another huge year for aircraft usage, receiving nearly $1.7mn in “travel between corporate headquarters and other locations where both executive offices and personal housing”. Although that was a drop from 2023’s $1.9mn, it’s still a staggeringly high figure.
Unfortunately for Ellen, however, she was leapfrogged by Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg, who appears to have seized the crown with £2.5mn of private jet usage in 2024. One’s products make you feel sick, the other is Tootsie Roll, etc…
The God Forbid Our Executives Pay For This Themselves Award
2024 Winner: AT&T
Some sentences are immortal:
To help achieve business objectives… the Company owns a limited number of social club and country club memberships
AT&T executives received about $150k of “club membership”-flavoured remuneration in 2023. Oddly, that spending line disappeared in 2024, despite a continued reference to the perk’s existence. Compare and contrast:
“Company-owned memberships” would seem to be the replacement… if so, it’s a big drop in spending. Clubbed to death?
The Become The Danger Award
2024 Winner: Mark Zuckerberg, Meta
What’s happened since we last checked in on Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg? Given it’s been roughly a year, we can assume his company Meta Platforms has probably blown a sum equivalent to a small country’s GDP on developing Second Second Life: Now With Legs, Still Without People.
Other than that, the Jiu Jitsu enthusiast has been playing it pretty safe: “cost related to security” for Zuck at home or while travelling rose to $10.4mn, having dropped from about $15mn to $9.4mn during Meta’s “year of efficiency” as Zuck lawyered up, deleted Facebook and hit the gym. With costs apparently rising once again, perhaps it‘s time to diversify into armed combat?
A coda on corporate dining
Big meal keeps on Rollins
Although not technically a Proxy winner last year, let’s quickly return to the saga of Gary W. Rollins, chair of Atlanta-based ratcatchers Rollins.
As we reported last year, Gary received $141,902 of compensation labelled as “Use of Executive Dining Room” during 2023, having also clocked up six-figure sums in the two years before that.
Intriguing, these “incremental costs” plunged during 2024: Gary received, uh, only $51,673 in dining room comp. That works out as just $141.18 a day (assuming he ate there every single day) — we could manage that in Pret tbh.
Further reading:
— The Proxies 2024: A celebration of substantial corporate perks (FTAV)
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