By Frank Williams
March 13, 2008
Last week, we reported GM CEO Rick Wagoner's bonanza: a $2.2m salary re-raise, 165,563 shares, 500k stock options and 75k restricted stock units. We now learn that Wagoner's heir apparent, newly-appointed COO Fritz Henderson received a 36.6 percent raise. That takes the former Beancounter-in-Chief to $1.8m per year (plus bonuses, unspecified stock options, pensions, cars for life, etc.). The Wall Street Journal reports that GM Car Czar Bob "California rules" Lutz also got his chance to shake the GM money tree. Lutz gets a 17.6 percent re-raise, taking him to $1.55m plus bonuses and stock options worth over $1m. GM would't say what other top executives will be financially blessed, but spokesmouth Tony Cervone claimed GM suits are paid "based on their performance." If that rankles, just think what these guys would have made if they hadn't sold the family silver, lost billions of dollars and sacrificed once valuable U.S. market share.
Subscribe to New Content Alerts13 Comments on “ GM Car Czar Bob Lutz Gets 17.6% Re-Raise. And then some. ”
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POWERED
March 13th, 2008 at 8:20 am
I can’ t see how Wagoner profits by taking a percentage of a loss {he reigns over the whole losing company} … but if Lutz’s department is showing a profit , then it makes sense.
March 13th, 2008 at 8:26 am
frontline :
but if Lutz’s department is showing a profit , then it makes sense.
Lutz is in charge of GM Global Product Development. The whole company is his department. And they’re not doing so well IMHO.
(Interestingly, since Fritz was promoted to COO, Lutz is the only remaining GM exec who reports directly to Wagoner.)
March 13th, 2008 at 8:52 am
As sad as it sounds, I’m not even surprised. It’s the case in most industries: CEOs from large financial companies were ousted, but flew away on golden parachutes, even though they bear a large responsibility for the current credit crisis.
March 13th, 2008 at 9:04 am
Those pay plans must be fascinating! How do they read? If losses exceed 100 Mil your pay= 100,000. If losses are below 100 Mil but above 50 Mil your pay= 200,000 …….
March 13th, 2008 at 9:30 am
If Maximum Bob is re-raising, then I’m all in. :-)
March 13th, 2008 at 9:53 am
We are likely seeing Golden Parachutes
deploying…
If memory serves, J.T. Battenburg, III et. al.
did the same thing only days before Delphi did the Chap. 11 walk….
March 13th, 2008 at 10:35 am
Now what’s with the sour grapes? So what if Lutz gets paid over thirty times the median annual household income in the USA (excluding stock options, bonuses and perks) to bloviate while wrecking a company. You some kind of communist?
March 13th, 2008 at 11:06 am
How do these guys sleep at night? Oh, I forgot, they spend $4000-$5000 to get the “Kristen”s of this world to help them with that.
March 13th, 2008 at 11:08 am
I was going to say something negative about this – and Wagoner – and Fritz – but I realized I’m just bitter.
Congratulations to Lutz, Wagoner and Fritz. You are America.
March 13th, 2008 at 11:19 am
Gee…
I wonder why the union guys are so pissed off and so unwilling to make concessions?
The guy on the line being asked to take pay cuts and layoffs finds it a little more hard to swallow following a upper management pay increase.
Lead by example fellas.
March 13th, 2008 at 11:47 am
Well, if the cars for life are GM products, it could be punishment enough.
That would be a good way to reduce the backlog – pay them in unsold Tahoes, etc.
I know that I don’t have a MBA or anything like that, but if someone wants to pay me $1 million plus a year, I promise I will do at least as well as the GM execs.
March 13th, 2008 at 1:53 pm
I don’t mind the exorbitant pay for top level executives, Its just the fact that they don’t get fired for lack of performance that kills me. By all means reward top level talent handsomely but demand performance for that pay.
March 13th, 2008 at 5:38 pm
I’m simply amazed, big raises for poor performance and a 17% raise at that, I guess that’s what true inflation is at right now.