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Crazy CEO Compensation: How I Voted My Proxy at Coca-Cola (KO) E-mail
Written by David Neubert   
Friday, 13 April 2007

I just looked at my Coca Cola Inc (KO) Proxy Statement for the annual meet to take place on Wednesday April, 18 2007 in Wilmington, Delaware and was disgusted by how much Board of Coca-Cola decided to pay the CEO. But I will keep holding the stock. I think it's going higher.

Photo of Coca Cola CEO Neville IsdellI think Neville Isdell is doing alright. Coca-cola (KO - $48.80 ) is coming back after years of falling behind. The stock is starting to catch up to the positive story. He continues to raise the dividend and buyback stock. I am not complaining about his performance but his pay. He deserves to get paid well but at the end of the day he is just a caretaker. I'm sure he's a nice and talented guy, he serves on charity boards, helps the unfortunate and is probably a great parent. He did not found this company with his own money, he did not invent a new way of doing business. He did not build Coke from scratch like Bill Gates or Larry Ellison with their companies. I get why those guys are billionaire but do we really need CEO billionaires?

I Purchased the bulk of my position in June of 2006 at $43.27 and I'm still holding even after the 15%+ gains I've already enjoyed.

Here is the Compensation Data from the Proxy.

I took Grandma's advice on Coca Cola (KO - $49.80 ) and voted against every member of the board's compensation committee.

Cathleen P. Black, Chair
Ronald Allen
James D. Robinson III
Sam Nunn



2006 SUMMARY COMPENSATION TABLE

Name and
Principal Position




Year


Salary
($)

Bonus
($)

Stock
Awards
($)

Option
Awards
($)

Non-Equity
Incentive
Plan
Comp.
($)

Change in
Pension Value
and
Nonqualified
Deferred
Comp.
Earnings
($)

All Other
Comp.
($)

Total
($)

(a)


(b)


(c)

(d)

(e)

(f)

(g)

(h)

(i)

(j)

E. Neville Isdell
Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer


2006


1,500,000

0

12,128,912

7,290,000

5,500,000

5,371,105

545,407

 32,335,424

Muhtar Kent
President and Chief Operating Officer


2006


773,077

0

1,232,275

1,072,533

1,809,962

532,178

871,563

6,291,588

Gary P. Fayard
Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer


2006


616,298

0

4,347,292

2,056,278

1,493,588

563,197

69,499

9,146,152

Mary E. Minnick
Executive Vice President and President, Marketing, Strategy and Innovation


2006


623,123

0

2,320,681

1,535,033

1,706,958

531,755

237,535

6,955,085

José Octavio Reyes
President, Latin America Group


2006


543,793

0

3,563,129

1,693,724

1,185,810

1,535,201

446,839

8,968,496


Additionally, I voted against management on their Equity Incentive Plan proposal. I also voted. FOR the shareholder proposals (The Board Recommended a Vote AGAINST) relating to management compensation.

One of the management compensation proposals by Mary F. Morse, of Moorestown, NJ proposes that the remuneration to any of the top five persons named in Management be limited to $500,000.00 per year, plus any nominal perks. Now I think this proposal is too limiting for compensation but I voted for it anyway. Perhaps, if a proposal likes this gets enough votes the compensation committee will wake up out of their slumber.

Disclosure: I own and plan to continue to own Coca-Cola (KO) for the near future.

Disclaimer: Nothing in this trade log is meant to be specific financial advice or a recommendation to buy or sell. I do not give investment advice. Do your own research. Do not rely on anything in this weblog to make investment decisions. I do not log all my trades here. I only describe or mention those that I think might be interesting. Consult an investment professional familiar with your specific financial situation before buying or selling any security. Options may be for me but they are are not for everyone. Futures are highly speculative. You can lose more than your initial investment in futures.


Executive Compensation  KO  Shareholder Activism 

Comments (4)add
...
written by John , April 13, 2007
This is criminal! I am fishing my proxy out of the garbage and voting against these b@stards.
...
written by Michael , April 15, 2007
John,
Come on, this guy makes hundreds of millions of dollars for the company, he deserves to be paid well.
...
written by John , April 16, 2007
Why is it that the CEO of a major company deserves less than some of the idiots that can play basketball, football or baseball? At least the CEO of Coke has made profits for the shareholders.
...
written by David Neubert , April 17, 2007
Comments on CEO pay. Being a CEO is not for everyone, it is a difficult job to get that requires talent hard work. Most hardworking CEO's deserve to be millionaires and entrepreneurial CEOs deserve to be billionaires. But the CEO of Coke did not invent the product, he never risked his own capital, he is making his money on the backs of those who preceeded him. He didn't invent the brand, create the marketing campaigns since 1910 that pushed the coke brand into the halls of brand fame. Does he deserve to be paid a few million a year? Yes. Does he deserve tens of millions year after year for being CEO of Coke during a time when the stock is volatile? No (caretaker CEO) deserves tens of millions of dollars in pay.
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David Neubert
About the author:
David Neubert ran the largest trading desk in the world.
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Last Updated ( Friday, 13 April 2007 )
 
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