Robert Mansfield of Apple
Position: Former Senior Vice President of Technologies, now working on "special projects"
Pay: $85.5 million
CEO: Tim Cook
Pay difference: $81.33 million
Mansfield is an Apple executive who's routinely described as "indispensable." He led both the development of the iPad and Apple's transition to Intel chips. When he announced his planned retirement, there was an uproar in the company, and Cook had to offer a big pay package to get him to stay.
Earlier this year, it was announced that he was stepping down from the company's executive committee. For most, that might be a sign of reduced influence. For Mansfield, it's a sign that he's being given the time and freedom he needs to come up with Apple's next big thing.
Dr. George D. Yancopoulos of Regeneron Pharmaceuticals
Position: Chief Scientific Officer
Pay: $81.6 million
CEO: Dr. Leonard S. Schleifer
Pay difference: $75.88 million
Yancopoulos was the principal force behind Regeneron's blockbuster drug, Eyelea, which helped triple the company's revenue. The company's board gave Yancopoulos a big restricted stock award both to reward him and to encourage him to stay at the company until they vest.
As the stock price has skyrocketed, so has the value of his shares.
Nikesh Arora of Google
Position: Senior Vice President and Chief Business Officer
Pay: $51.1 million
CEO: Larry Page
Pay difference: $51.1 million
Arora is the highly regarded head of Google's business side, which has become an increasingly big priority for Page. Under his watch, the company's become massively profitable and just saw its stock pass $1000. He's the highest-paid employee at the company by a significant margin.
Arora's name has come up for just about every high-profile CEO job opening in the tech world, including the Yahoo spot eventually filled by Marissa Mayer, and the current opening at Microsoft. It costs to keep him.
Hamilton (Tony) E. James of Blackstone Group
Position: COO and President
Pay: $33.3 million
CEO: Steven Schwarzman
Pay difference: $24.8 million
While Schwarzman remains CEO of private equity giant Blackstone, James is the one that really runs things. Pay in private equity is also a bit different from other industries. Since Blackstone is a limited partnership, pay decisions are all up to Schwarzman.
Additionally, partners get paid for the performance of "legacy funds" started before the company went public and for their ownership in the firm. So while James may have gotten more in salary and bonuses, Schwarzman owns a large part of the company and made a total of $213 million last year, mostly from cash dividends.
Sheryl Sandberg of Facebook
Position: COO
Pay: $26.2 million
CEO: Mark Zuckerberg
Pay difference: $24.21 million
Zuckerberg is already a billionaire several times over from owning so much of Facebook as its founder. He takes home a relatively meager $1.99 million in compensation. Sandberg's been handsomely rewarded for steering the company towards profitability and shepherding it through the IPO process.
Robert G. Goldstein of Las Vegas Sands
Position: President of Global Gaming Operations
Pay: $24.2 million
CEO: Sheldon Adelson
Pay difference: $13.5 million
Company founder Adelson is still CEO and a multi-billionaire already. Goldstein helped launch two of the company's most successful properties, the Venetian and the Palazzo.
With the exception of Adelson himself, he's the company's longest-serving executive and was raised to his current position in charge of all gaming worldwide in 2011.
Carl M. Eschenbach of VMWare
Position: President and COO
Pay: $20.4 million
CEO: Patrick P. Gelsinger
Pay difference: $6.4 million
Last year, Eschenbach got a big promotion from heading up customer operations to heading up all operations for the company. That came with a big boost in pay. His 2011 compensation was around $6 million.
His promotion came on the heels of Gelsinger replacing Paul Maritz as CEO.
Jeffrey A. Wilke of Amazon
Position: Senior VP of Consumer Business
Pay: $17.7 million
CEO: Jeff Bezos
Pay difference: $16.02 million
Wilke now runs the whole consumer side of Amazon. He previously revamped fulfillment and operations, one of the most important parts of Amazon's business, overseeing the efficient movement of its products. It's why the company can charge less than just about anybody else.
Amazon CEO Bezos takes a relatively meager salary, understandable because he owns a vast portion of Amazon's stock. Wilke's options are heavily back loaded, meaning the company really wants him to stick around.
Glenn Allen Youngkin of The Carlyle Group
Position: COO
Pay: $17.2 million
CEOs: William E. Conway, Jr. and David M. Rubenstein
Pay difference: For both, it's $16.91 million
The Carlyle Group is another private equity firm, which means that the founders get massive payouts for the shares they hold in the company. The compensation for the Co-CEOs was only $281,250. But don't feel too bad, the two split more than $100 million in dividends along with a third co-founder.
Star employees have to be highly paid in order to reduce the temptation of starting their own funds, which helps explain Youngkin's high compensation.
Manuel Medina-Mora of Citigroup
Position: Co-President and CEO of Global Consumer Banking
Pay: $15.1 million
CEO: Michael Corbat
Pay difference: $2.7 million
Pay is something of a sensitive issue at Citigroup, after shareholders embarrassingly rejected former CEO Vikram Pandit's compensation in 2011. Though Citi's been doing comparatively well, that may have kept Corbat's compensation down.
Medina-Mora's pay reflects his position at the company, that he was discussed as another potential replacement for Pandit, and was recently raised to the position co-president.
Tom Montag of Bank of America
Position: Co-COO
Pay: $14.4 million
CEO: Brian T. Moynihan
Pay difference: $6.08 million
Montag's made more money than his boss for three years in a row, primarily because Montag runs the investment banking operations at the company, which helped fund it in a time when Moynahan has focused on struggling credit-card, mortgage, and other consumer businesses.